Campylognathoides liasicus (Quenstedt), an Upper Liassic pterosaur from Holzmaden - the Pittsburgh specimen

Abstract

In 1903, Carnegie Museum obtained an excellently preserved pterosaur, which was included in the collection purchased from the Belgian Baron de Bayet. In 1897, the skeleton without the skull and a part of the cervical vertebral column had been found in the Upper Liassic “Posidonienschiefer” near Holzmaden (Wtirttemberg, Germany). Bernard Hauff (1921: plate legend 19) reported that one year later the isolated skull with some cervical vertebrae was discovered in exactly the same horizon and only a few meters away from the skeleton. When he prepared the specimen, Hauff put the skull into the skeleton slab as it is shown today. Hauff also (1921: PI. 19) published the only existing photograph of this specimen. Although it has been mentioned by nu¬ merous authors as the “Pittsburgh specimen of Campylognathus” there has been no thorough investigation of it. Plieninger (1907: 222) pub¬ lished only some details about the sternum and the gastralia, and von Huene (1914: 60), who studied the specimen personally, figured and described only the skull. Finally Colbert (1969: 20) dealt with the meas¬ urements of certain skeletal elements in comparison with his rhamphorhynchid pterosaur from Cuba. Among the five known specimens of the genus Campylognathoides the Pittsburgh specimen is the most complete. It provides new informa¬ tion about the skull and the pelvis, on the basis of which some previous opinions can now be corrected.