Pterosaurs for Spec (part 1)

Suggestions for Spec (and, in case refused, to my personal projects). Part 2 coming (I'm simply to lazy to right everything in the same day).
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Like HE, Spec has birds and bats. However, if one notes carefully, he/she will find that, despiste the appearent similarities, the winged vertebrates of both timelines are different. Birds, for instance, aren't all within the Neornithe clade, the only surviving dinosaur clade in HE; some are Enantiornithes, or "opposite-birds", others are related to Neornithes (such birds belong to the two toothed sea birds orders and to a single order of pigeon like birds), other are part of the bizarre Xenornithe clade, and others may or may not be birds at all. And bats aren't even true bats; there are two winged mammalian clades, one that consists on primitive, egg laying mammals, and another on winged primates with what seems to be Mammalia's answer to maniraptor feathers.

However, there''s a clade of flying tetrapods that clearly makes Spec unique: pterosaurs. These flying archosaurs, related to dinosaurs, have ruled the skies since the dusk of the Triassic, and even after the appearence of birds they remained kings of the air, indeed, these produced the biggest flying beasts ever, some with wingspans of 12 meters or more. On HE, these magnificient beasts disappeared from the skies (though their fossilized remains clearly affected human imagination; after all, who doesn't picture a toothed, long tailed Pteranodon, no matter how inaccurate it is?), but on Spec, they still remain, and though their days of kings of the sky are long gone they still enjoy a cosmopolitian distribution, and some still reach great sizes, while others are among Australia's dominant predators.

Pterosaurs have unique features that separate them from other sauropsids. Their wings are leathery, supported by a very long finger fourth finger (the other three are clawed, and used to climb, grom and support their weight) and strong fibers; they also have a smaller patagia, that extends from the wrist to the shoulder, and which is also supported by the pteroyd (a long bone that extends from the wrist), unique to this clade; this, alongside the webbed, clawed fingers of the hand, has the function of an avian bastard wing, or alula. Pterosaurs have plantigrade hind feet, but the front limbs have elongated metacarpals, an adaptation to the support of the wing membrane. Pterosaurs, like most "reptiles", are highly precocial; the young ones, or "flaplings", can already fly from the moment they are born. Therefore, while parents might protect the eggs, the young fend for themselves; this means adults and babies occupy different niches, thus decreasing their specie diversity.

Pterosaur fossil record in the Late Cretaceous is poor; only two clades, Azhdarchidae and Nyctosauridae, are well known, though there are several fragmentary remains. It was once believed that they disappeared as birds took over the skies and outcompeted them, but, while a decline in diversity can't be totally ruled out, it doesn't seem to had been caused by avians. By the Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum, it is pretty clear that the pelagic nyctosaurids were wiped out, incapable of long term survival when the marine ecosystems suffered rapid changes. However, soonly afterwards, pterosaur taxa which left no remains since the Early Cretaceous reappear; the small, insectivorous Anurognathidae are common in the sediments of Messel in Germany, which date from this era; other pterosaurs also reappear as well. The already mentioned azhdarchids also saw a small wave of diversification; traditionally strok-like, some gave rise to hornbill-like forms, like †Gigantala. The end of the Paleogene saw the decline of some old pterosaur taxa, while the azhdarchian pterosaurs produced the scavenger rocs, and the flightless carnocursorids. Current pterosaur diversity is mainly based on anurognathids and azhdarchids, though some oddball species still remain.

Anurognathidae

The most basal modern pterosaur taxa, they seem to be a sauropsid's answer to a mammalian bat. Small and with a short, broad snout (similar to that of a frog), they occupy a niche akin to that of HE's nightjars and frogmouths, sharing the night skies with flying mammals and leaving the daylight to birds. This group is quite ancient, having its origin steaming from the Early Jurassic (and possibly Early Triassic), but their skeletons, so fragile, have only left fossils in the middle of the Mesozoic, from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. They later reappear in the Cenezoic, when places with the apropriate conditions for their fossils to be preserved occured again.

Most modern anurognathids are insectivores like their ancestor, but a few are vertebrate predators.

Cliff-Ghast (Europteryx philippullmani)

A typical anurognathid, this black and brown insect eater occurs in Europe, wintering in Africa and India. Its name comes from its prefered rosting places: cliffs. During the day thousands of these ghasts gather in mountainous or coastoal cliffs to rest, trusting on their coloration to protect them from predators. Then, at dusk, they suddenly erupt from their roosting positions and fly acorss the mainland in search of food; some cliff-ghasts tagged on the Alps have been found on Britain in the same day. During the spring, males form leks on the cliffs, mating with any female that passes nearby and fighting off competitors. Afterwards, the fertilised females bury their eggs on the ground; the flaplings hatch 20 days or so after they had been layed.

Blue Paradise-Dactyl (Ranorhynchus paradisea)

Denizens from New Guinea, paradise-dactyls are perhaps the most colorfull of all anurognathids. The males of this specie has beutifull bright blue wings, though other species have quills males in addition to bright colors (no anurognathids have crests). They are also active in the daylight, leaving the night time to their relatives, the ghasts. They also have nectar added to their diet, making them the only pterosaurs specialized in drinking nectar while adults (though flaplings of other pterosaurs do take nectar).

Tengu (Daemonognathus niponica)

Although most anurognathids are insectivores, the tengus have strayed from the family's habits and became powerfull vertebrate killers. Barely avoiding competion from the avian scowls, they also hunt them, specially when they are chicks. In turn, scowls eat their flaplings. This aprticular specie is endemic to Japan and the first described specie; other tengus occur in mainland Asia and Ocenia. Tengus, being actual carnivores, are solitary, as opposed to their flock forming relatives; the territory of a male often overlaps those of several females. Other males are kept at bay by their powerfull agressivity; battles often end in death.

Pterodactyloidea

Aside from anurognathids, all living pterosaurs belong to this clade. The most diverse clade is azhdarchoidea, but there's a few oddball species.

Kongamato (Amphipterus africanus)

An unique african pterosaur, this creature resembles †Cearadactylus from the Early Cretaceous, though it might not be related. With a wingspan of 3 metres, this creature occurs in the wetlands and waterways in Africa and Madagascar. Dwarved by the rocs, this creature is, unlike them, an active predator, hunting fish and small animals from the air; it has been reported to attack olitiaus (azhdarchids that resemble hornbills). Solitary and territorial, it oftens attacks specsplorers that dare to venture into their habitat. As such, little is known from their breeding grounds.

Ropen (Luciopterosaurus aumalae)

Similar to the kongamato, this creature is considerably less agressive, though its prefered habitats, the dense forests and wetlands of New Guinea and nearby islands, make it hard to study them. This creature is the only pterosaur to have bioluminescense; its patagia glow brightly in the night time. It is presumably caused by a specie of fungi, probably related to the fungi that infects baskervilles.

(azhdarchoids are left for the next essay)