Short Bones
Many pterosaur bones that appear to be short bones tend to be broken long bones. The most notable short bones are the carpal bones of the wrist joint. These bones are very distinctive in pterosaurs.
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The Distal carpal (left) is the bone that is furthest from the body of the animal. it is a wedge shaped bone in almost all large species. A groove can often be seen running around the thick end of the bone, as seen upper left. |
| The lateral carpal (right) is usually rectangular in shape with an articular facet at one end. The specimen shown on the right comes from an ornithosaur. |
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A frequent find find in some sediments are short bones with deeply curved articular surfaces. These bones are the broken ends of the first wing phalange (left). This part of the wing bone was very compact and survives very well where other parts of the wing finger decay. |
