''Samrukia'' is a genus of large

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...

s known only from a single lower jaw discovered in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

and only known specimen was collected from the

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya (million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 mya. The ...

- Campanian age Bostobynskaya Formation in Kyzylorda District. It was described by Darren Naish, Gareth Dyke, Andrea Cau, François Escuillié, and Pascal Godefroit in 2012, and the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

is named ''Samrukia nessovi''. The species is named after

Lev Nessov Lev may refer to: Common uses *Bulgarian lev, the currency of Bulgaria *an abbreviation for Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible and the Torah People and fictional characters *Lev (given name) *Lev (surname) Places * Lev, Azerbaijan, ...

, a paleontologist, and the genus is named after Samruk, a magical bird of

Kazakh folklore Kazakh, Qazaq or Kazakhstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kazakhstan *Kazakhs, an ethnic group *Kazakh language *The Kazakh Khanate * Kazakh cuisine * Qazakh Rayon, Azerbaijan *Qazax, Azerbaijan *Kazakh Uyezd, administrative dis ...

Classification

The type specimen of ''Samrukia'' was at first believed to belong to an

oviraptorosauria Oviraptorosaurs ("egg thief lizards") are a group of feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia and North America. They are distinct for their characteristically short, beaked, parrot-like skulls, with or wit ...

n theropod dinosaur. An initial cladistic analysis by Naish ''et al.'' found ''Samrukia nessovi'' instead to be a basal member of the bird lineage

Ornithuromorpha Euornithes (from Greek ' meaning "true birds") is a natural group which includes the most recent common ancestor of all avialans closer to modern birds than to ''Sinornis''. Description Clarke ''et al''. (2006) found that the most primitive know ...

. They interpreted ''Samrukia'' as a very large bird (the jawbone is twice as long as that of an

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There are ...

), but noted that it is not known whether ''Samrukia'' would have been able to fly (in which case they would have had wingspans of roughly ) or not (in which case they would have been around tall). A subsequent analysis published by

Eric Buffetaut The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

in 2011 challenged the interpretation of ''Samrukia nessovi'' as a bird. Buffetaut challenged the identification of certain "avian" characteristics identified by Naish ''et al.'', claiming that none were definitely avian and that many were in fact well known among

s. He noted that all purported autapomorphies of ''Samrukia'', the unique traits used to set it apart from other birds, are shared with pterosaurs. He also criticized the earlier cladistic analysis for not including pterosaurs, but only birds and other theropod dinosaurs. Buffetaut stated that the species is "clearly a large pterosaur, not a giant bird."Buffetaut, E. (2011). "''Samrukia nessovi'', from the Late Cretaceous of Kazakhstan: A large pterosaur, not a giant bird." ''Annales de Paléontologie'', 97(3–4): 133–138. One of the original researchers who described ''Samrukia'', Darren Naish, agreed with Buffetaut's re-assessment. Naish wrote on his ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' Web log ''Tetrapod Zoology'': "Working on fragmentary material is dangerous since you can often get things very, very wrong, and I realised within a few days of the paper appearing that ''Samrukia'' was no bird. It seemed, in fact, to be a pterosaur."

References

{{Portalbar, Paleontology Late Cretaceous pterosaurs of Asia Pterodactyloids Fossil taxa described in 2012 Fossils of Kazakhstan Taxa named by Darren Naish