Hungarian Academy of Sciences-Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary.
Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2010 Feb;293(2):243-58. doi: 10.1002/ar.21053.
On the basis of a new, three-dimensionally preserved specimen of the Early Jurassic pterosaur Dorygnathus banthensis we present a reinterpretation of the pterosaur palate. The hard palate is formed by the extensive palatal plate of the maxilla and not by the palatine as has been generally reconstructed. This palatal plate of the maxilla emarginates the choana rostrally and rostrolaterally as in other archosaurs and lepidosaurs. The longitudinally elongate and dorsoventrally flat palatine in Dorygnathus is an isolated bone caudal to the palatal plate of the maxilla and morphologically and topographically it resembles that of crocodilians and birds, respectively. The palatine separates the choana laterally from the suborbital fenestra demonstrating the homologous nature of the (primary) choana in all archosaurs and lepidosaurs. Our study indicates that in basal pterosaurs the pterygo-ectopterygoid fenestra existed caudal to the suborbital fenestra, which became confluent with the adductor chamber in pterodactyloids thereby increasing the relative size of the adductor chamber and hence the mass of the jaw adductors. The choana in basal pterosaurs was relatively small compared with the interpterygoid vacuity. With increasing rostroventral inclination of the quadrates in more derived pterosaurs, the interpterygoid vacuity was reduced considerably, whereas the choana increased in size. This exceptional Dorygnathus specimen also shows a hitherto unknown pair of fenestrae situated at the palatal contact of the premaxilla-maxilla and might represent the aperture for the vomeronasal organ.
基于一件新的、三维保存的早侏罗世翼龙 Dorygnathus banthensis 的标本，我们重新解释了翼龙的腭部。硬腭由上颌的广泛腭板形成，而不是像通常重建的那样由腭骨形成。上颌的腭板在吻部和前外侧切迹处切迹翼孔，这在其他恐龙和蜥蜴中也是如此。在 Dorygnathus 中，长而纵向拉长、背腹扁平的腭骨是位于上颌腭板尾部的孤立骨，在形态和地形上分别类似于鳄鱼和鸟类。腭骨将翼孔从眶下窗侧向隔开，证明了所有恐龙和蜥蜴中（初级）翼孔的同源性。我们的研究表明，在基础翼龙中，翼-外翼骨窗位于眶下窗尾部，与翼龙的收肌室相通，从而增加了收肌室的相对大小，从而增加了颌收肌的质量。与间翼状空隙相比，基础翼龙的翼孔相对较小。在更衍生的翼龙中，方骨的前-后倾斜度增加，间翼状空隙大大减小，而翼孔增大。这个特殊的 Dorygnathus 标本还显示了一对迄今未知的位于前上颌骨-上颌骨腭接触处的窗孔，可能代表了犁鼻器的孔口。
