First African pterosaur trackway (manus only)

Masour et al. 2017
bring us new manus only Late Cretaceous azhdarchid tracks. They report, “The site contains only manus tracks, which can be explained as a result of erosion of pes prints.” They assume that the pterosaur fingers pressed deeper, carrying more weight on the forelimbs. Of course, this is a bogus explanation. No tetrapods do this. Pterosaurs put LESS weight on their tiny fragile fingers. They used their hands like skiers used ski poles.

There is another explanation for manus only tracks
called floating and poling, but that hypothesis was dismissed by the authors.

Masrour et al. dismiss the possibility of floating
by referencing Hone and Henderston 2014 in which simulations of the buoyancy of poorly constructed pterosaurs made using computers indicate that these reptiles had no ability to float well in water. This hypothesis was dismantled earlier here. In addition, Hone’s track record is not good. Neither is Henderson’s, who does not seem to care about using accurate skeletal reconstructions.

More importantly,
if Hone and Henderson put forth an anti-floating hypothesis no one (and certainly no scientist) should simply believe in it. This is Science. Others, like Masrour et al., should TEST hypotheses for validity, as was done here. Instead Masrour et al. put forth a hypothesis in which pes tracks were selectively erased over time, which seems preposterous and unnatural. This sort of selective erasure has never been observed in Nature.

Scientists fail
when they blindly follow bad hypotheses, just because they are published. Nodding journalists repeat what they read, whether right or wrong. Scientists test whenever they can.

Don’t believe in Henderson cartoons
(Fig. 5). Test with accurate representatives of skeletons IFig. 4).

When you don’t use cartoons for data
then you have a much better chance of figuring out how Nature did things.

Thank you for your continuing interest.
After over 2000 blog posts the origin of bats continues to be the number one blog post visited week after week, with totals equalling the sum of the next five topics of interest. That’s where the curiosity of the public is right now.

References
Hone DWE, Henderson DM 2014. The posture of floating pterosaurs: Ecological implications for inhabiting marine and freshwater habitats. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 394:89–98.
Masrour M et al. (4 other authors) 2017. Anza palaeoichnological site. Late Cretaceous. Morocco. Part I. The first African pterosaur trackway (manus only). Journal of African Earth Sciences (in press) 1–10.

https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/pterosaurs-were-unlikely-floaters-hone-and-henderson-2013/