A terminal Cretaceous giant pterosaur from the French Pyrenees

A very large pterosaur cervical vertebra is described from the Upper Maastrichtian deposits of Mérigon, in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. It resembles the vertebrae of Quetzalcoatlus, from the Maastrichtian of Texas, more than those of Arambourgiania, from the Maastrichtian of Jordan. The estimated wing span of the Mérigon pterosaur is close to 9 m, which makes it one of the largest known flying creatures. Giant pterosaurs still had a wide geographical distribution at the end of Maastrichtian time, which is not suggestive of a declining group, although it is difficult to obtain an accurate estimate of taxonomic diversity of terminal Cretaceous pterosaurs on the basis of available dat…