Pterosaur hands and feet soft tissue anatomy (free pdf)

[Ben Creisler]

Ben Creisler

bcre...@gmail.com

A new paper:

Free pdf:

David Hone and Bruce Lauer (2025)
Soft tissue anatomy of pterosaur hands and feet – new information from Solnhofen region pterodactyloid specimens
Lethaia 58(3): 1-12
doi: https://doi.org/10.18261/let.58.3.1
https://www.scup.com/doi/10.18261/let.58.3.1

Free pdf:
https://www.scup.com/doi/epdf/10.18261/let.58.3.1


The pterosaur fossil record is known for a large number of complete and articulated specimens, including those with soft tissues, that predominantly come from a number of key localities. However, isolated elements or body parts can still provide important information. Here we describe a leg of a ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Solnhofen region of southern Germany which shows exceptional preservation of the scales of the foot pad and webbing between the toes. A second specimen shows details of the hand and foot. We show that the soft tissues are remarkably consistent with those of other very distantly related pterosaurs. It is likely that the structure of the surfaces of the hands and feet that contacted the substrate were largely uniform across the clade, despite the enormous differences in habitats, body sizes and temporal differences between the various lineages.

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Blog:

New data on pterosaurian soft tissues (Dave Hone)

https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/new-data-on-pterosaurian-soft-tissues/