Gwawinapterus Beardi: New Pterosaur Genus Discovered From Jawbone Found In Cabinet

Sometimes it pays to snoop around. When researcher Victoria Arbour opened a storage cabinet at the University of Alberta, she discovered a jawbone sitting in a dark corner.

The fossil had been found inside a rock on B.C.'s Hornby Island five years ago. It had then been placed in storage at the University's paleontology department, its origin a mystery.

Arbour was baffled, and initially thought the jawbone may have belonged to a dinosaur. And yet the teeth, Arbour explains, "reminded me of piranha teeth, designed for pecking away at meat," according to CTV News. Finally, after months of investigation, Arbour identified the bone as belonging to a pterosaur.

Pterosaurs are giant flying reptiles that lived until the Cretaceous period, about 65 million years ago. Although often confused for dinosaurs, pterosaurs are not dinosaurs. In fact, DiscoveryNews reports that one pterosaur may have even eaten dinosaurs.

As for Arbour's pterosaur, her particular reptile has smaller teeth than others, and thus it is believed that Arbour has discovered a new genus, which she has named Gwawinapterus beardi. It is believed that this pterosaur had a wingspan of about ten feet, while other pterosaurs can have wingspans of over 30 feet. Arbour states that the pterosaur was a scavenger, and probably patrolled the skies with its wide wingspan.

This is the first pterosaur ever found in B.C., although back in the Cretaceous period, the coastal islands were actually part of what is now California. Perhaps sometimes, it's not bad to have a skeleton in your closet. Or at least a jawbone.

Arbour's study was published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

Comments

[Cherie Lyon]

05:43 PM on 01/18/2011

Oh no, she found my beardie and he's dead! Where's the rest of him? Did the cat get it?
;p
Yeah, I know.... get a life.

[FTracy3]

05:25 PM on 01/18/2011

When the mainpage headline said Prehistoric Discovery Found in Cabinet I thought for a minute the President had appointed Helen Thomas new press secretary.

[Cherie Lyon]

05:44 PM on 01/18/2011

LOL cute.

[white mende man]

06:50 AM on 01/16/2011

I thought petreaus was in Iraq?

[BrassOnes]

11:34 PM on 01/15/2011

Explain that Sarah P

[LMPE]

06:56 PM on 01/14/2011

And to think: this fella is only 6,000 years old!

[northendtreker]

07:42 PM on 01/14/2011

Evolution happens very, very fast,

[TYRANNASAURUS]

12:10 PM on 01/13/2011

Incredible Prehistoric Discovery Found In Cabinet.....

Not surprising....many new discoveries are found in cabinets......... the football field of the University of Arizona has a huge storage area full of dino bones that have yet to be unwrapped and examined.

[Art Franklin]

11:23 AM on 01/13/2011

After pondering the possibilities of juvenile & pygmy, I was just thinking how strange our time period will be to future paleontologists.

For example, all (most) of our dogs are a single species. But will beings of the future classify them as such? I bet they would look at the bone structure of a dachshund as opposed to a great dane and classify them as two different species.


In other words, what if there was just different breeds of pterasaurs and scientists are too excited to claim new species?

[toxicbrainpoison]

12:47 AM on 01/13/2011

Pterasaurs were around a lot more recently than 65 million years ago. Last I heard they went extinct in the Americas about 12,000 years ago, meaning people coexisted with these creatures for most of human history.

[Art Franklin]

11:16 AM on 01/13/2011

whoa there, toxic, don't poison the knowledge base! What is your source for this claim? Ken Ham? Crypozoologists? Or do you have interesting information from a paleontologist you can link to?

Because... last I heard, pterosaurs were included in the great extinction event 65 million years ago...

[messy]

02:29 PM on 01/13/2011

Last you heard is right. Pterasaurs went extinct at the end of the Mesozoic, although only a few were left by the time the comet hit. The Dino-birds had pretty much taken over their niches and most were extinct long before 65 million BC.

[1differentdrummer]

11:28 AM on 01/13/2011

Didn't you stay up pretty late for a school night?

[kareemachan]

08:35 PM on 01/12/2011

Loving Vancouver Island like we do, we've seen some fun fossil sites there, especially on the Puntledge River. Very cool that they found this pterosaur, and I wonder where the genus name came from.

[feuille0d0erable]

01:47 PM on 01/14/2011

I think it's a Haida First Nation derivative. One of my sisters lives on Hornby, interestingly enough.

[MohammedAbbasi]

08:03 PM on 01/12/2011

i wonder if they tasted like chicken?

[RTIII]

05:38 PM on 01/14/2011

...Find your nearest Christi-Fundi and ask 'em if their ancestors kept any notes on that. -snark-

But for a real answer: Yes, I'm quite sure they did.

[usorthem3]

06:12 PM on 01/14/2011

Wasn't that the smell coming from the Ark during those 40 days? No wonder they are are extinct, they made them spicy like Popeye's.

[Jan Goh]

06:49 PM on 01/12/2011

It's worth noting that having unclassified fossils sitting in back rooms or cabinets is hardly the exception. At the Royal Drumheller Museum (also in Alberta) I was told that they have a 10-20 year backlog on material. That means that if they stopped accepting new submissions, it would tak e them that long to properly sort through the stuff they have sitting around. The person showing us around also mentioned that the backlog at a place like the Natural History Museum in London is on the order of 100-200 YEARS (presumably, at current staffing). It's impossible to say what treasures are lurking in a crate in a back-room of some museum.

[yemaya]

06:52 PM on 01/12/2011

good point. wouldn't it be great if humans took the same curiosity and funding for science as they do for wars?  We would probably have those back logs up to date by now.
science rocks.

[Joan Lawrence]

09:54 AM on 01/13/2011

Wow, that's really interesting information. I had no idea. Thanks for putting it up.

[Dvmx]

04:57 PM on 01/12/2011

"pterosaurs are not dinosaurs. In fact... one pterosaur may have even eaten dinosaurs."

Lots of dinosaurs ate dinosaurs.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

05:25 PM on 01/12/2011

HUNDREDS.... I thought that funny when i read it too.... specialty my family.... we loved em". They were yum yum good specially those teen stegosauruses and Spinosauruses..

[dead WASP]

06:02 PM on 01/12/2011

;)

[Art Franklin]

10:43 AM on 01/13/2011

Thank you - worst supporting statement evar!

"Foxes are not chickens. In fact, one fox may have even EATEN chickens!"

"Cannibals are not humans. In fact, one cannibal may have even EATEN humans!"

Clearly, the logic of this argument is not helpful. I think it's the emphasis given in italics that helped make this statement ridiculous.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

12:13 PM on 01/13/2011

What is it evar or ever?

[Paul Houston]

04:34 PM on 01/12/2011

Hang on! How do they know it is not the asses jawbone which Sampson used to smite the Philistines with?

[Paul Houston]

04:27 PM on 01/12/2011

I wonder how much they have sitting around "forgotten" in the Natural History Museum in London?

[Woods-shade]

04:36 PM on 01/12/2011

The last scene in 'Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark' always gets me.. : )

[dead WASP]

06:03 PM on 01/12/2011

Was thinking the same thing!

[caroline gray]

04:40 PM on 01/12/2011

that is one of my favourite museums in the world. i love the darwin rooms, rows and rows and rows of samples of species dating back centuries in jars.

[Paul Houston]

04:47 PM on 01/12/2011

I do like the way in which a dead rat which they found on the building site found it's way into a bottle and on display.

[hotsparks]

04:24 PM on 01/12/2011

Did they find the birth certificate?