Bakonydraco Temporal range: Late Cretaceous , Santonian Pre? ? O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype fossil
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	† Pterosauria
Suborder:	† Pterodactyloidea
Family:	† Tapejaridae
Genus:	† Bakonydraco ?si, Weishampel & Jianu, 2005
Species:	† B. galaczi
Binomial name
† Bakonydraco galaczi ?si, Weishampel & Jianu, 2005

Bakonydraco is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous period ( Santonian stage) of what is now the Csehbanya Formation of the Bakony Mountains , Iharkut , Veszprem , western Hungary .

Etymology [ edit ]

Bakonydraco was named in 2005 by paleontologists Attila ?si , David Weishampel , and Jianu Coralia . The type species is Bakonydraco galaczi . The genus name refers to the Bakony Mountains and to Latin draco , " dragon ". The specific epithet galaczi honors Professor Andras Galacz, who helped the authors in the Iharkut Research Program, where fossils are since 2000 found in open-pit mining of bauxite , among them the remains of pterosaurs, the first ever discovered in Hungary.

Description [ edit ]

Bakonydraco is based on holotype MTM Gyn/3, a nearly complete mandibula , a fusion of the lower jaws . Also assigned to it, as paratype , is MTM Gyn/4, 21: parts from another jaw's symphysis (the front parts, having fused into a single blade-like structure, of the two lower jaws); azhdarchid wing bones and neck vertebrae from the same area may also belong to it. ^[1]

The lower jaws are toothless and the two halves of the mandibula are frontally fused for about half of its overall length, forming a long, pointed section that is compressed side-to-side and also expanded vertically, giving it a somewhat spearhead - or arrowhead -like shape from the side. This expansion occurs both on the lower edge and on the top surface, where the most extreme point corresponds with a transverse ridge which separates the straight back half of the symphysis from the pointed end in the front. The jaws of MTM Gyn/3 are 29 centimeters (11.4 inches) long, and the wingspan of the genus is estimated to be 3.5 to 4 meters (11.5 to 13.1 feet), which is medium-sized for a pterosaur. Because the jaws are relatively taller than other azhdarchids, and reminiscent of Tapejara , it could have been a frugivore . ^[1]

Classification [ edit ]

Initially, Bakonydraco was assigned to the family Azhdarchidae , ^[1] however, paleontologists Brian Andres and Timothy Myers in 2013 had proposed that Bakonydraco actually belonged to the family Tapejaridae , in a position slightly more basal than both Tapejara and Tupandactylus . ^[2] Indeed, the original paper describing this species compared the holotype jaw to Tapejara and Sinopterus , ^[1] implicating its affinities to this clade (or at least a large amount of convergence ). If Bakonydraco is a tapejarid, it represents the only Late Cretaceous record of Tapejaridae known to date (aside from the slightly older Caiuajara dobruskii ). A more recent phylogenetic study reinforces this placement. ^[3] The cladogram on the left follows the 2014 phylogenetic analysis by Brian Andres and colleagues that also recovered Bakonydraco within the family Tapejaridae, more specifically within the tribe Tapejarini . ^[4] In 2020, in a phylogenetic analysis conducted by David Martill and colleagues, Bakonydraco was once again found within the Tapejaridae, this time consisting of two lineages: the Tapejarinae and the Sinopterinae , Bakonydraco was recovered within the subfamily Sinopterinae in the basalmost position, unlike in the analysis by Andres and colleagues. Their cladogram is shown on the right. ^[5]

See also [ edit ]

• List of pterosaur genera
• Timeline of pterosaur research

References [ edit ]