Cosesaurus vs. Saller 2016

Nobody wants Cosesaurus aviceps to be a pterosaur ancestor.
Everyone in paleo prefers pterosaurs to be closely related to dinosaurs and their last common ancestor, which is, according to Nesbitt 2011, a phytosaur. This is continually ‘proved’ in pterosaur studies by excluding Cosesaurus (e.g. Hone and Benton 2007, 2009; Benton 1999; Nesbitt 2011) and in Cosesaurus studies by omitting pterosaurs (e.g Saller dissertation 2016). Saller 2016 claims to not see pterosaur traits in Cosesaurus (Fig. x). That is because Saller did not include pterosaurs in his analysis.

Whoever is writing the Wikipedia page on Cosesaurus accepts Saller’s freehand interpretation (Fig. 1) and prefers Saller’s refusal to add pterosaurs to his cladogram. We talked about putting metaphorical ‘blinders’ on earlier.

Today we’ll take another look
at the tiny mold fossil that is Cosesaurus. It preserves a nearly completely articulated tiny lepidosaur tritosaur tanystropheid fenestrasaur (according to the large reptile tree, LRT, 1401 taxa) so sensitively preserved that it shares the matrix with an amorphous medusa (jellyfish) clearly presented.

Saller (p.148) wrote (Google translated from the original Italian):
“At the base of the orbit there is a depression that has been interpreted as a window  antorbital from Ellenberger (1977) and from Peters, which even distinguishes three antidotal windows (Peters, 2000). While the presence of a depression is certain, the conditions of conservation and the difficulty in identifying the sutures among the various elements makes it difficult to propose one of his own reliable interpretation. If it were really an antorbital window, this circumstance, together with the poor development of the subnarial process of the premaxillary, they would be elements a support of the hypothesis of an affinity with the pterosaurs.” 

Is an antorbital fenestra present in Cosesaurus?
Saller said he saw only a depression. You decide by examining these several pictures of the skull of Cosesaurus in various lighting angles (Fig. 1).

We must let Saller 2016 finish his thought (from above):
“The analysis of the postcranial skeleton [of Cosesaurus] offers however, very little space for this interpretation.” So, Saller denies or discounts what he sees on the rostrum, because he does not see pterosaur traits in the post-crania. [ Hello, Larry Martin! ] Even so, by not including any pterosaurs in his cladogram, Saller fails to test the possibility that just an antorbital fenestra is enough to make Cosesaurus a transitional taxon basal to pterosaurs.

Don’t drop the ball when you’re just about to make a touchdown.
Was PhD candidate Saller advised to not test pterosaurs in his cladogram? I’d like to find out. 

If the post-crania is Saller’s only anti-pterosaur issue, 
let’s take another look at the various post-cranial pterosaur traits found in Cosesaurus that Saller did and didnot see. It will help to segregate them using DGS methodology.

Some data are hard to ‘see’ even under a microscope.
Some data need to be visually segregated in order to see what is really going on in a fossil. Saller gives no indication that he traced any portion of Cosesaurus for his dissertation. Nor did he create a negative of the negative mold. I can tell you from leaning over a microscope looking at Cosesaurus in Barcelona, it is impossible to comprehend this specimen without creating a positive and using tracings to help simplify and segregate elements on a computer monitor. Saller did not use all the tools at his disposal. Neither did I while writing Peters 2000. Now I know better.

Here (Fig. 2) DGS methods segregate the pectoral elements from the ribs and gastralia. The coracoids have a curved stem, as in the Triassic pterosaur, Bergamodactylus— distinct from the discs in more basal tritosaurs/tanystropheids. The sternum, interclavicle and clavicles are coincident and just about to fuse in Cosesaurus, creating a sternal complex, as in pterosaurs—distinct from more basal tritosaurs/tanystropheids. Saller 2016 did not see this.

Saller reports he did see the strap-like scapulae, distinct from the discs found in Macrocnemus… and even though the pterosaur traits keep adding up by Saller’s own admission, still that was not enough to add pterosaurs to his cladogram. Is this an example of peer-group pressure?

Why does the humerus disappear
when the lighting angle is moved (Fig. 2)? Because it is crushed upon the dorsal vertebrae. Only certain lighting angles reveal the right humerus. Why does it crush so completely? Because it is hollow. Can you name another small Triassic reptile with extremely hollow arm bones?

Saller 2016 looked at the pelvis
and reported only two sacrals present, despite the long ilium he noted. There are five sacrals in Cosesaurus. Sacral are added in response to a bipedal stance — needed whenever flapping its arms (remember the stem-like coracoid is the clue to this behavior).

Saller failed to see the prepubes. One is pretty obvious here (Fig. 3 in green), but I missed it, too prior to writing Peters 2000.  Prepubes add anchors for femoral adduction, which happens when the knees are brought closer to the midline, typically for bipedal locomotion.

More pterosaur traits tomorrow. 

Just in time—a pertinent quote from Dr. John Ostrom,
“With the announcement of the first dinosaurs with feathers from China, Ostrom (then age 73) was in no mood to celebrate. He is quoted as saying, ‘I’ve been saying the same damn thing since 1973, `I said, `Look at Archaeopteryx!’” 

References
Ellenberger P and de Villalta JF 1974. Sur la presence d’un ancêtre probable des oiseaux dans le Muschelkalk supérieure de Catalogne (Espagne). Note preliminaire. Acta Geologica Hispanica 9, 162-168.
Ellenberger P 1978. L’Origine des Oiseaux. Historique et méthodes nouvelles. Les problémes des Archaeornithes. La venue au jour de Cosesaurus aviceps (Muschelkalk supérieur) in Aspects Modernes des Recherches sur l’Evolution. In Bons, J. (ed.) Compt Ren. Coll. Montpellier 12-16 Sept. 1977. Vol. 1. Montpellier, Mém. Trav. Ecole Prat. Hautes Etudes, De l’Institut de Montpellier 4: 89-117.
Ellenberger P 1993. Cosesaurus aviceps . Vertébré aviforme du Trias Moyen de Catalogne. Étude descriptive et comparative. Mémoire Avec le concours de l’École Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Laboratorie de Paléontologie des Vertébrés. Univ. Sci. Tech. Languedoc, Montpellier (France). Pp. 1-664.
Kellner AWA 2015. Comments on Triassic pterosaurs with discussion about ontogeny and description of new taxa. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (2015) 87(2): (Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences) Printed version ISSN 0001-3765 / Online version ISSN 1678-2690.
Nesbitt SJ 2011. The early evolution of archosaurs: relationships and the origin of major clades. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 352: 292 pp.
Peabody FE 1948.  Reptile and amphibian trackways from the Lower Triassic Moenkopi formation of Arizona and Utah.  University of California Publications, Bulletin of the  Department of Geological Sciences 27: 295-468.
Peters D 2000a. Description and Interpretation of Interphalangeal Lines in Tetrapods.  Ichnos 7:11-41.
Peters D 2000b. A Redescription of Four Prolacertiform Genera and Implications for Pterosaur Phylogenesis. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 106 (3): 293–336.
Peters D 2009. A reinterpretation of pteroid articulation in pterosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29: 1327-1330
Peters D 2007. The origin and radiation of the Pterosauria. In D. Hone ed. Flugsaurier. The Wellnhofer pterosaur meeting, 2007, Munich, Germany. p. 27.
Saller F 2016. Anatomia, paleobiologia e filogenesi di Macrocnemus bassanii Nopcsa 1930 (Reptilia, Protorosauria). Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna Dottorato di Ricerca in Scienze della Terra Ciclo XXVII 206pp.
Sanz JL and López-Martinez N 1984. The prolacertid lepidosaurian Cosesaurus aviceps Ellenberger & Villalta, a claimed ‘protoavian’ from the Middle Triassic of Spain. Géobios 17: 747-753.
Wild R 1993. A juvenile specimen of Eudimorphodon ranzii Zambelli (Reptilia, Pterosauria) from the upper Triassic (Norian) of Bergamo. Rivisita Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali “E. Caffi” Bergamo 16: 95-120.
Wild R 1978. Die Flugsaurier (Reptilia, Pterosauria) aus der Oberen Trias von Cene bei Bergamo, Italien. Bolletino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana 17(2): 176–256.

wiki/Bergamodactylus
wiki/Cosesaurus