Austriadraco dallavecchiai (Wellnhofer 2001, 2003; Kellner 2015; Dalla Vecchia 2021; BSp 1994 I51, Late Triassic ~210mya ~18 cm snout to vent length was a tiny pterosaur sister to Seazzadactylus. It was a tiny adult based on similarly-sized relatives. Kellner (2015) provided a new name, Austriadraco, to this specimen originallly considered a juvenile Eudimorphodon.
The jugal was no deeper than the maxilla and it had a straight ventral rim. The mandible had a low mound-like coronoid process. The posterior teeth retained several cusps. The triangular sternal complex was small but able to accommodate four sternal ribs. The pubis was vertically oriented.
Nesbitt and Hone (2010) interpreted a mandibular fenestra in Austriadraco, but did not notice the displaced bone that would have covered it in vivo.
Kellner (2015) agreed this was a mandible in lateral view with a fenestra. That is wrong, as shown below in comparison to Eudimorphodon, which preserves two mandibles, one in lateral view, one in medial view. Only the medial view has a depression.
Dalla Vecchia (2021) sought to revise Austriadraco, but mistakenly identified the sternal complex as the frontal. The actual frontal was tucked in close to the slender coracoid. |
