One of the largest Pterodaustro specimens had stomach stones

aka: Gastroliths.
And that’s unique for pterosaurs of all sorts. So, what’s the story here?

Figure 1. The MIC V263 specimen compared to other Pterodaustro specimens to scale. Its one of the largest and therefore, most elderly.

One of the largest Pterodaustro specimens
MIC V263 (Figs. 1-5), was reported (Codorniú, Chiappe and Cid 2013) to have stomach stones (gastroliths). That made news because that represented the first time gastroliths have been observed in 300 Pterodaustro specimens and thousands of pterosaurs of all sorts.

Unfortunately,
Codorniu, Chiappe and Cid followed tradition when they aligned pterosaurs with archosaurs, like dinos (including birds) and crocs. Those taxa also employ gastroliths for grinding devices. According to Codorniú, Chiappe and Cid, other uses include as a personal mineral supply, maintaining a microbial flora, elimination of parasites and hunger appeasement. Shelled crustaceans may have formed a large part of the Pterodauastro diet and stones could have come in handy on crushing their ‘shells’ according to the authors.

FIgure 2. Pterodaustro specimen MIC V263 in situ and as originally traced.

The authors also noticed
an odd thickening of the anterior dentary teeth and the relatively large size of the MIC V 263 specimen (Fig. 1) and suggested their use as devices for acquiring stones.

The wingspan of this big Pterodaustro is estimated at 3.6 meters.

Figure 3. Pterodaustro elements from specimen MIC V263.

Unfortunately,
the authors overlooked a wingtip ungual (Fig. 4), or so it seems… The confirming wingtip ungula is off the matrix block. But they weren’t looking for it…

Figure 4. One wing ungual was preserved in this specimen of Pterodaustro. The other is missing off the edge of the matrix.

The authors overlooked a distal phalanges on the lateral toe (Fig. 5). It is hard to see. And they were not looking for it. Note the double pulley joint between p2.1 and p2.2. That’s where the big bend comes in basal pterosaurs.

Figure 5. Pterodaustro MIC V263 pes in situ and with pedal digit 2 reconstructed from overlooked bones.

The authors overlooked a manual digit 5, the vestigial near the carpus (Fig. 6) displaced to the disarticulated carpus during taphonomy. Again, easy to overlook. And they were not looking for it…

Figure 6. Carpus of the Pterodaustro specimen MIC V263 withe elements colorized. Manual digit 5 elements are in blue on the pink ulnare. Not sure where carpal 5 is.

The authors
labeled the unguals correctly (Fig. 7), but some of the phalanges escaped them. Note the manual unguals are not highly curved, like those of Dimorphodon and Jeholopterus. And for good reason. Pterodaustro is a quadrupedal beachcomber with the smallest fingers of all pterosaurs. It’s not a tree clinger. And for the same reason, pterosaurs with long curved manual claws are not quadrupeds. Paleontologists traditionally attempt to say all pterosaurs are quadrupeds, rather than taking each genus or clade individually. Beachcombers made most of the quadrupedal tracks. It’s also interesting to note that Pterodaustro fingers bend sideways at the knuckle, in the plane of the palm, probably in addition to flexing toward the palm. It’s easier for lizards to do this, btw. Not archosaurs. That’s how you get pterosaur manual tracks with digit 3 oriented posteriorly, different from all other tetrapods.

Figure 7. Pterodaustro MIC V 263 fingers reconstructed and restored. Pterodaustro is unusual in having metacarpals 1 > 2 > 3. Note the flat tipped manual unguals. Not good for climbing trees, like those of many other pterosaurs.

So the question is: why did this specimen have stones inside—
when other pterosaurs do not? Since MIC V263 is larger, it is probably older, closer to death by old age. Was it supplementing an internal grinding structure that had begun to fail? Was this some sort of self-medication for a stomach ailment? It’s not standard operating procedure for pterosaurs to have stomach stones. So alternate explanations will have to do for now. Let’s not assume or pretend that all pterosaurs had gastroliths. They don’t.

Figure 8. Elements of the MIC V263 specimen applied to the smaller PVL 3860 specimen scaled to the length of the metacarpals. At this scale the large Pterodaustro had a shorter wing and shorter fingers with smaller unguals.

Compared to the largely complete and articulated Pterodaustro specimen,
PVL 3860, there are subtle differences in proportion (Fig 8) to the larger MIC V263 specimen. If metacarpals are the same length, then the wing is shorter in the larger specimen. This follows a morphological pattern in which no two tested pterosaurs are identical. Still looking for a pair of twins.

References
Codorniú L, Chiappe LM and Cid FD 2013. First occurrence of stomach stones in pterosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33:647-654.