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Qilong — Anurognathid Muscle Study A
Published: 2005-03-04 02:23:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 4779; Favourites: 65; Downloads: 135
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Description
A lateral view of a muscle study I did of an anurognathid pterosaur, based on Dendrorhynchoides from China. I left the legs and arms off as they would obscure the sides of the trunk. The animal is shown with a fring of so-called "pterofuzz", a tail tip, and the skin of the snout as being left intact, to give the impression of a dissection study.Related content
Comments: 9
Flat out stunning.... there is something tantalizingly real about this. If you showed this to an 18th century biologist he wouldn't question it for a second.
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Heh, thanks. Not bad for an old illo, right? A bit dated, though. I might imagine updating this to pull the fuzz down onto the face, seal the "lips" up, that sort of thing. I do like it, too, though!
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Very useful! Have you based this on disections? (Bird, croc, lizard...) The musculature is complex (which in my personal view isn't wrong, but based on what some of the pros have said in the past there seems to be an anathema toward complex musculature in archosaurians) much like a mammals. Very, very useful. And artistic as well.
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Wow, that is INCREDIBLE! Very impressive - especially considering this is an anatomical rendering of a long extinct animal!
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Thanks, Matt.
I wanted an idea of where the muscles were for the fur for realistic drawing of pterosaurs in flight. Anurognathids were the coolest thing before sliced bread, so I started with them. Bird and lizard muscles are pretty easy to research, and some general ideas about tendons, rib muscles, and the muscle of the back of the neck were basic to all tetrapods, so they were easy to add it. Most of the muscles are easy to find as they attach bone to bone. Some muscles attach to muscles instead, such as in the neck region, so I had to asusme they were there and, based on their positions in a few animals, was able to "locate" where they were likely to be in anurognathids. These are all surface muscles, so the deep jaw muscles, deep neck and trunk muscles, are all hidden. This was so I could show the tendons of the neck, the "uropatagium" tendon (which occur in bats, but who knows if they were in pterosaurs), and the pteroid tendon for the wing. Muscle types came afterward when I researched the muscles themselves, and the drawing evolved. There have been projects like this on and off for some three years, so I was happy this finally got made. This, like everything I do, is prone to change.
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This whole concept is really frigging cool. Like a prehistoric lab manual. 
How did you go about researching this, if I may ask?
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Well, I decided I wasn't going to put too much fat in because of it obscuring the muscles for the most part. I left room around the neck for fat, and show the skin loose underneath so that I can "streamline" it. The tendons and muscles of the neck were done to infer a large, thick neck because of the need to make the neck about as broad with fat and "fuzz" as the head, maybe a little narrower. As for Dendrorhynchoides, this is based on a general anurognathid, rather than that animal specifically, but the skull WAS modelled from Dendro, so the tail is not particularly "accurate" in the fossils. Plus, I did this last year, at which time the question of anurognathid tail length was open to discussion, and may in fact still be compared to other species.
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Wow! I love these pterosaur muscle studies of yours! Just one thing, Dendrorhynchoides's tail seems to be fake, so I really doubt that its tail was much longer than that of Anurognathus. Also, I would add in some fat and/or thicker "pterofuzz" around the neck area streamlining, and perhaps thicker pterofuzz overall, like in Jeholopterus.
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