Herbstosaurus 2025
Ezcurra et al 2025 revisited
“Herbstosaurus pigmaeus Casamiquela, 1975 … a Late Jurassic pterosaur from northwestern Patagonia. It is based on the natural moulds and a few bony patches of the sacrum, prepubis, ilium, and both femora of a small-sized specimen. The phylogenetic relationships of this species have been a matter of debate, having been originally interpreted as a theropod dinosaur and subsequently as a pterosaur, either as an indeterminate pterodactyloid or a probable dsungaripteroid.”
We looked at Herbstosaurus earlier (in 2013) here. All of this is a rehash of that.
Figure 1. From 2013 Herbstosaurus CTES-PZ-1711 (left) compared to Germanodactylus = Altmeuhlopterus rhamphastinus (right) and the BMM specimen (center).
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/herbstosaurus-recon-b588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/herbstosaurus-recon-b588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-91845″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/herbstosaurus-recon-b588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. From 2013 Herbstosaurus CTES-PZ-1711 (left) compared to Germanodactylus = Altmeuhlopterus rhamphastinus (right) and the BMM specimen (center). ” width=”584″ height=”429″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/herbstosaurus-recon-b588.jpg?w=584&h=429 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/herbstosaurus-recon-b588.jpg?w=150&h=110 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/herbstosaurus-recon-b588.jpg?w=300&h=220 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/herbstosaurus-recon-b588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. From 2013 Herbstosaurus CTES-PZ-1711 (left) compared to Germanodactylus = Altmeuhlopterus rhamphastinus (right) and the BMM specimen (center). The great size of Herbstosaurus is on display here.
Too few bits and pieces
of Herbstosaurus are known (Fig 1) to add it to the Large Pterosaur Tree (LPT). All recent workers, including Ezcurra et al, have nested it close to smaller Late Jurassic Germanodactylus specimens and similar-sized Early Cretaceous Dsungaripterus specimens.
Figure 1. Herbstosaurus on the left compared to Coloborhynchus on the right. The sacrum is similar, but more swept back in Herbstosaurus. The femoral head is disssimilar.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/herbstosaurus-recon-a588.jpg?w=257″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/herbstosaurus-recon-a588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-12036″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/herbstosaurus-recon-a588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Herbstosaurus on the left compared to Coloborhynchus on the right. The sacrum is similar, but more swept back in Herbstosaurus. The femoral head is disssimilar.” width=”584″ height=”682″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/herbstosaurus-recon-a588.jpg?w=584&h=682 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/herbstosaurus-recon-a588.jpg?w=128&h=150 128w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/herbstosaurus-recon-a588.jpg?w=257&h=300 257w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/herbstosaurus-recon-a588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. From 2013. Herbstosaurus on the left compared to the ornithocheirid Coloborhynchus on the right. The sacrum is similar, but more swept back in Herbstosaurus. The femoral head angle is dissimilar.
The authors did not list,
nor consider in their cladograms the larger germanodactylids known from limbs and little else: the SMNS 3830 specimen and two Elanodactylus specimens (Fig 3). This is the quandry: scrappy specimens sharing too few data points.
Figure 2. Click to enlarge. Germanodactylus and kin.
Figure 2. Click to enlarge. Germanodactylus and kin. Click to enlarge.
The authors concluded,
“We acknowledge that the dsungaripteroid (sensu Kellner 2003) affinities of Herbstosaurus pigmaeus are weak, but it seems to be the most parsimonious hypothesis with the evidence at hand. In addition, the presence of a prominent anteriorly directed tubercle on the dorsal apex of the external trochanter of the femur reinforces the idea that Herbstosaurus pigmaeus is not an early pterodactyloid, but an ornithocheiroid.”
Relevant parts of the ornithocheirid, Coloborhynchus, is shown above to scale (Fig 2).
Germanodactylus and the Dsungaripteridae
Figure 3. Germanodactylus and the Dsungaripteridae = large germanodactylids. Click to enlarge.
Ezcurra reported these phylogenetic results,
“poorly resolved.” The LPT includes many more taxa and is well resolved. The Ezcurra tree was borrowed from others and included the cherry-picked = unrelated Euparkeria as the proximal outgroup to the Pterosauria, not that that matters in this case.
Herbstosaurus continues to be one of those specimens
that is intriguing, but enigmatic. Similar, but not the same. Possibly convergent. Closest to taxa that share some, but not all or even most available traits, as the authors noted. Given the derived right angle of the femoral head (Fig 1), like unrelated Dimorphodon, this was a pterosaur without sprawling knees, thus more likely a wader than a soarer.
The lack of fusion in the sacrals is phylogenetic, not ontogenetic.
References
Ezcurra MD, Fernandes AE, Roig M and Baczko MB 2025. A revision of the pterodactyloid pterosaur Herbstosaurus pigmaeus Casamiquela, 1975 from the Late Jurassic of Argentina. An. Acad. Bras. Ciênc. 97 (suppl 1) https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765202520241130
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/02/26/herbstosaurus-2025/
