Biomechanics of the mandibular musculature and feeding habits in Pterosauria: Chinese species with possible specialisations

• Grant number: 25/05605-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Principal Investigator: Hussam El Dine Zaher
• Grantee: Rodrigo Vargas Pêgas
• Supervisor: Xuanyu Zhou
• Host Institution: Museu de Zoologia (MZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Beipiao Pterosaur Museum Of China, China
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/11296-0 - Biomechanics of the mandibular musculature and feeding habits in Pterosauria, BP.PD

Abstract

Pterosaurs are extinct archosaur reptiles that lived from the Upper Triassic to the Upper Cretaceous and were the first vertebrates to achieve active flight. Despite being studied for more than two centuries, there are still many uncertainties about their evolution, including the diversity of their eating habits. Existing hypotheses lack detailed biomechanical tests, especially through 3D virtual reconstructions. FAPESP Post-Doctoral Fellowship #2023/11296-0, to which this Research Internship Abroad (RIA) proposal is linked, aims to three-dimensionally reconstruct the mandibular musculature and estimate the bite force of eight pterosaur species belonging to different lineages, covering a time interval from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous. The biomechanical analysis involves virtual musculoskeletal modelling of these species and a comparison of their bite forces, using advanced technology to generate unprecedented data on the group. The results of this study will provide a more precise understanding of the functions associated with mandibular morphology, revealing patterns of dietary adaptation and of the palaeoenvironmental niches occupied by pterosaurs throughout the Mesozoic. This RIA project, to be carried out at a Chinese institution, aims to enable the study of one of the eight species originally proposed, Dsungaripterus weii, as well as the addition of two more, Istiodactylus sinensis and Jeholopterus ningchengensis. These forms have quite specialised ecological hypotheses, being some of the only genera considered possible durophages, scavengers, and aerial insectivores respectively. Together with the other species analysed (possible piscivorous, generalist, filter-feeding, and frugivorous forms), the project will benefit from studying an even wider sample. (AU)