Note on new pterosaur remains (Archosauria: Pterodactyloidea) from Cerro La Isla, Atacama region, northern Chile

Abstract

In this study, new isolated fragmentary pterosaur bones are described from Lower Cretaceous outcrops exposed at Cerro La Isla, a site located approximately 95 km east of Copiapó city, Atacama region, northern Chile. The material consists of a jaw fragment with broken teeth, the caudal portion of a mid-cervical vertebra and the distal portion of a femur. Based on their morphology, the jaw and cervical fragments are assigned to Ctenochasmatidae, a group of pterodactyloid pterosaurs that has been previously reported from this locality, while the femur lacks diagnostic characters that would allow its referral to a more exclusive taxon than Pterodactyloidea indet. This new material confirms the previously proposed presence of ctenochasmatid pterosaurs in the Cretaceous outcrops of Cerro La Isla, and increases the diversity of their skeletal elements discovered at the site.