A New Finding of a Pterosaur in the Southern Urals

The last (IX) cervical vertebra from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) coastal marine deposits of Izhberda Quarry near the town of Orsk (Orenburg oblast) belonged to a large pterosaur with an estimated wingspan of 5.6 m. This vertebra is most similar to the IX cervical vertebra of a giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus sp. from the Maastrichtian of the United States in the relatively long centrum and the large hypapophysis and identified as Azhdarchidae indet. This finding is the first evidence of the existence of giant Azhdarchidae pterosaurs on the territory of Russia.