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''Puntanipterus'' was a genus of ?dsungaripterid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous La Cruz Formation of San Luis, Argentina. The genus was in 1975 named by José Bonaparte and Teresa Sánchez. The type species is ''Puntanipterus globosus''. The genus name refers to the ''Puntanos'', the colloquial name for the inhabitants of the province of San Luis after the old name of their capital "San Luis de la Punta de los Venados", and combines this with a Latinized Greek ''pteron'', "wing". The specific name means "spherical" in Latin, a reference to the form of the lower tibia. It is based on holotype PVL 3869 (earlier FML 3869) found in 1972, a 105 millimetres long tibiotarsus and seven centimetres long fibula; referred to it were a back vertebra and a wing and foot phalanx. The leg bones were described as similar to those of ''Pterodaustro'' (from slightly younger rocks), except for having an expanded spherical joint at the ankle and spiny processes on the side faces of the tibia at that end.〔Bonaparte, J.F., and Sanchez, T.M. (1975). Restos de un pterosaurio ''Puntanipterus globosus'' de la formación La Cruz provincia San Luis, Argentina. ''Actas Primo Congresso Argentino de Paleontologia e Biostratigraphica'' 2:105-113. ()〕 Bonaparte in 1978 classified ''Puntanipterus'' as a member of the Pterodaustridae.〔Bonaparte, F. (1978), ''El Mesozoico de América del Sur y sus tetrápodos'', Opera Lilloana, v. 26〕 The same year Peter Wellnhofer was more careful and limited his assessment to a Pterodactyloidea ''incertae sedis''.〔Peter Wellnhofer (1978), ''Pterosauria'' - Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, 19: 1-82〕 In 1980 Peter Galton concluded it belonged to the Dsungaripteridae.〔P. M. Galton (1980), "Avian-like tibiotarsi of pterodactyloids (Reptilia: Pterosauria) from the Upper Jurassic of East Africa", ''Palaeontologische Zeitschrift'' 54(3/4): 331-342〕 It was still by many considered to be a dsungaripterid by the time Peter Wellnhofer published ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs'' (several editions in the 1990s). However, in the nineties several tibiae conforming to that of ''Puntanipterus'' were found in the same strata as ''Pterodaustro''; a direct comparison is only impossible because more complete specimens of the latter are always very compressed, deforming the ankle morphology; but smaller fragments containing not-compressed ankles all have the build of a ''Puntanipterus'' tibiotarsus. This is by South American workers seen as a strong indication that both forms are identical.〔Luis M. Chiappe, David Rivarola, Edgardo Romero, Sergio Dávila and Laura Codorniú (1998), "Recent Advances in the Paleontology of the Lower Cretaceous Lagarcito Formation (Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas, San Luis, Argentina), ''New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin'', 14: 187-192〕 Glut reports a personal communication from Laura Codorniú and Luis Chiappe (2004) that ''Puntanipterus'' should be regarded as a junior synonym of ''Pterodaustro'',〔Glut, D.F. (2006). ''Pterodaustro'' In: Glut, D.F. ''Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia.'' Supplement 4. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina, 623-624. ISBN 0-7864-2295-5.〕 but it remains to be seen if this will be supported in the future; it was not done in David Unwin's ''The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time'', published in 2006 (he recognized it as a possibly valid species of uncertain relationships).〔Unwin, D.M. (2006). ''The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.'' Pi Press:New York, 272-273. ISBN 0-13-146308-X.〕 ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Puntanipterus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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