Yes! Now it can be told! The amazing Lusognathus was just published. It has these bizarre splayed, but strong-looking teeth. I almost wonder if it was basically a flying clam rake. I worked closely with the also amazing Alexandra Fernades, in 2022, who supervised me to try to get this illustration right. Every plant species on the shore of this estuary is known from fossils. And the thing I’m proudest of is the pink granite outcrop way off on the western horizon. Today that granite horst is the Berlengas islands.

https://peerj.com/articles/16048/

Pterosaur Illustration Lourinha Formation 

Reconstruction of the Lourinha Formation Biota

The setting is a coastal lagoon in the Lusitanian Basin, which connects to the Atlantic Ocean further to the south. The lagoon is surrounded by a low coastal floodplain crossed by a meandering river system. In this illustration, a stream channel (one of many nearby) emerges into the lagoon at the far left of the picture frame. The bed of this stream may be seasonally dry, making it an arroyo or wadi. On the horizon there are hills representing the Berlenga Horst. This pink granite is the source rock for the red-tinted silica sand and in the lagoon.

Vegetation

Along the banks of the stream channel there is a gallery forest of taller trees. The trees are Cheirolpeidaceae, and possibly Araucariaceae. The former produce Classopolis pollen and bear leaves of Cupressinocladus micromerum^[1], Brachyphyllum lusitanicum, Pagiophyllum lusitanicum and Elatides sp. The fossil wood from these trees is Protocupressinoxylon and Prototaxoxylon. This riparian woodland has an understory of ferns and other pteridophytes adapted to seasonally dry conditions. More predominant from our vantage point are scattered, shrubby, plants that represent the bennettite Otozamites mundae. Among this scrub vegetation are the unknown plants that produced the abundant BEG pollen known from the Lourinha Formation (some research suggests that this so-called Bennettitales/Erdtmanithecales/Gnetales pollen could even be close to the lineage that led to angiosperms).

In the foreground, under water, are encrustations of the calcifying Dasycladacean algae Cylindroporella lusitanica (Pais).