Genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous
Lonchodectes
|
|
Lectotype
jaw fragment (A?D) and assigned rostrum fragment (E?H)
|
Scientific classification
|
Domain:
|
Eukaryota
|
Kingdom:
|
Animalia
|
Phylum:
|
Chordata
|
Order:
|
†
Pterosauria
|
Suborder:
|
†
Pterodactyloidea
|
Clade
:
|
†
Ornithocheiromorpha
|
Family:
|
†
Lonchodectidae
Hooley
, 1914
|
Genus:
|
†
Lonchodectes
Hooley, 1914
|
Type species
|
†
Pterodactylus compressirostris
|
Species
|
- †
L. compressirostris
(Owen, 1851)
|
Synonyms
|
- Pterodactylus
compressirostris
Owen, 1851
- Ornithocheirus
compressirostris
(Owen, 1851) Seeley, 1870
- Pterodactylus cuvieri
?
Bowerbank, 1851
- Ornithocheirus cuvieri
?
(Bowerbank, 1851)
Seeley
, 1870
- Coloborhynchus
cuvieri
?
(Bowerbank, 1851)
Owen
, 1874
- Anhanguera
cuvieri
?
(Bowerbank, 1851) Bakhurina & Unwin, 1995
- Cimoliopterus cuvieri
?
(Bowerbank, 1851) Rodrigues & Kellner, 2013
- Ornithocheirus brachyrhinus
?
Seeley, 1870
- Pterodactylus fittoni
?
Owen, 1859
- Ornithocheirus fittoni
?
(Owen, 1859) Seeley, 1870
- Anhanguera fittoni
?
(Owen, 1859) Unwin, 2001
|
Lonchodectes
(meaning "
lance
biter") was a
genus
of
lonchodectid
pterosaur
from several
formations
dating to the
Turonian
(
Late Cretaceous
) of
England
, mostly in the area around
Kent
. The species belonging to it had been assigned to
Ornithocheirus
until
David Unwin
's work of the 1990s and 2000s.
[1]
Several potential species are known; most are based on scrappy remains, and have gone through several other generic assignments. The genus is part of the complex
taxonomy
issues surrounding Early Cretaceous pterosaurs from
Brazil
and England, such as
Amblydectes
,
Anhanguera
,
Coloborhynchus
, and
Ornithocheirus
.
[2]
History and species
[
edit
]
Numerous species have been referred to this genus over time, and only those more widely connected with the genus are included here.
The
type species
,
L. compressirostris
, is
based on
NHMUK 39410, a partial upper jaw from the Turonian-age Upper Cretaceous Upper Chalk near Kent.
Richard Owen
named in 1851 as a species of
Pterodactylus
;
[3]
it was transferred to
Ornithocheirus
in 1870 by
Harry Govier Seeley
,
[4]
before becoming the type species of
Lonchodectes
in
Reginald Walter Hooley
's 1914 review of
Ornithocheirus
.
[5]
Confusingly, this species was also long regarded, incorrectly, as the type species of
Ornithocheirus
.
[6]
A variety of postcranial remains resembling those of Azhdarchoids from the Cambridge Greensand have been referred to
Lonchodectes
;
[6]
[7]
[8]
however, much of this material has since been referred to
Ornithostoma
.
[9]
In 2019, the Brazilian palaeontologist Rodrigo V. Pegas and colleagues suggested that the type specimen of
Lonchodectes compressirostris
could represent the same species as
Cimoliopterus cuvieri
. They cautioned this is impossible to confirm until associated skull and mandible material is found.
[10]
Formerly assigned species
[
edit
]
Hooley added two other species at this time, both of which had also been originally referred to
Pterodactylus
, then to
Ornithocheirus
:
L. giganteus
, a
Cenomanian
-age jaw fragment from the Chalk of Kent;
[11]
and
L. daviesii
, another jaw fragment, from the
Albian
-age Gault Clay.
[12]
"Pterodactylus" sagittirostris
, based on NHMUK R.1823, a lower jaw fragment from the ?
Valanginian
-
Hauterivian
-age Lower Cretaceous Hastings Beds of
East Sussex
,
[12]
"Ornithocheirus" platystomus
,
[4]
"Ornithocheirus" machaerorhynchus
, and
"O." microdon
were assigned to
Lonchodectes
in a 2001 review by David Unwin of Cambridge Greensand pterosaurs.
[6]
joining
L. compressirostris
,
L. giganteus
,
L. platystomus
, and
L. sagittirostris
in his listing of valid species.
[13]
However,
L. giganteus
,
L. machaerorhynchus
, and
L. microdon
have since been assigned to a new genus,
Lonchodraco
, while
L. sagittirostris
has been renamed
Serradraco
.
[2]
[14]
L. platystomus
may be a species of
Amblydectes
.
[2]
In 2020, a review of Lonchodectidae was conducted by paleontologist Alexander Averianov, where he reassigned the species
L. machaerorhynchus
to the genus
Ikrandraco
due to similarities in rostral morphology, as
I. machaerorhynchus
, and he also considered
L. microdon
a junior synonym of
machaerorhynchus
. Therefore,
Lonchodectes
is limited to its type species,
L. compressirostris
.
[15]
Classification
[
edit
]
In Peter Wellnhofer's 1991
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs
, written before Unwin's work, the species were included within
Ornithocheirus
(because of
L. compressirostris
being thought to be the type species), and are in fact the main fossils illustrated to represent the genus.
[16]
In 2003, Unwin placed them in their own family,
Lonchodectidae
, which he grouped within the group
Ctenochasmatoidea
,
[17]
while in 2006, he placed the family Lonchodectidae within the Azhdarchoidea, the group that includes the
tapejarids
and
azhdarchids
.
[13]
The cladogram below is a topology recovered by Longrich and colleagues in 2018. In their analysis, they placed
Lonchodectes
within the family Lonchodectidae as the sister taxon of
Lonchodraco
. Contrary to previous analyses, Longrich and colleagues placed Lonchodectidae (including
Lonchodectes
) within the more inclusive group
Ornithocheiromorpha
.
[18]
Paleobiology
[
edit
]
Lonchodectes
had long jaws with many short teeth, and the jaws were compressed vertically, like "a pair of
sugar tongs
with teeth".
[19]
Related species (including several taxa formerly included within the genus) had crests on their lower jaws, so the same probably also applied to
L. compressirostris
.
[20]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Kellner, A.W.A. (2003). Pterosaur phylogeny and comments on the evolutionary history of the group: In: Buffetaut, E., and Mazin, J.-M. (Eds.).
Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs
. Geological Society Special Publication
217
:105-137. 1-86239-143-2.
- ^
a
b
c
Rodrigues, Taissa; Kellner, Alexander (2013).
"Taxonomic review of the
Ornithocheirus
complex (Pterosauria) from the Cretaceous of England"
.
ZooKeys
(308): 1?112.
Bibcode
:
2013ZooK..308....1R
.
doi
:
10.3897/zookeys.308.5559
.
PMC
3689139
.
PMID
23794925
.
- ^
Owen, R. (1851). Monograph on the fossil Reptilia of the Cretaceous Formations.
The Palaeontographical Society
5
(11):1-118.
- ^
a
b
Seeley, H.G. (1870).
The Ornithosauria: an Elementary Study of the Bones of Pterodactyles
. Cambridge, 130 pp.
- ^
Hooley, R.W. (1914). On the Ornithosaurian genus
Ornithocheirus
with a review of the specimens from the Cambridge Greensand in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge.
Annals and Magazine of Natural History
, series 8,
78
:529-557.
- ^
a
b
c
Unwin, David M.
(2001).
"An overview of the pterosaur assemblage from the Cambridge Greensand (Cretaceous) of Eastern England"
.
Mitteilungen aus dem Museum fur Naturkunde in Berlin
. Geowissenschaftliche Reihe.
4
(1): 189?222.
Bibcode
:
2001FossR...4..189U
.
doi
:
10.5194/fr-4-189-2001
.
- ^
Unwin, D.M. (2008)
- ^
Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy
, Mark P. Witton (2013)
- ^
Averianov, A.O. (2012). "
Ornithostoma sedgwicki
? valid taxon of azhdarchoid pterosaurs."
Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS
,
316
(1): 40?49.
- ^
Pegas, R. V.; Holgado, B.; Leal, M.E.C. (2019). "On
Targaryendraco wiedenrothi
gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids".
Historical Biology
.
33
(8): 1?15.
doi
:
10.1080/08912963.2019.1690482
.
S2CID
209595986
.
- ^
Bowerbank, J.S. (1846). On a New Species of Pterodactyl. Found in the Upper Chalk of Kent (P. giganteus).
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
2
:7?9.
- ^
a
b
Owen, R. (1874).
A Monograph on the Fossil Reptilia of the Mesozoic Formations. 1. Pterosauria.
The Palaeontographical Society Monograph
27
:1?14.
- ^
a
b
Unwin, D.M. (2006).
The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.
Pi Press:New York, p. 273.
ISBN
0-13-146308-X
.
- ^
Stanislas Rigal; David M. Martill; Steven C. Sweetman (2017). "A new pterosaur specimen from the Upper Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation (Cretaceous, Valanginian) of southern England and a review of Lonchodectes sagittirostris (Owen 1874)". In D. W. E. Hone; M. P. Witton; D. M. Martill. New Perspectives on Pterosaur Palaeobiology. The Geological Society of London. doi:10.1144/SP455.5.
- ^
Averianov, A.O. (2020).
"Taxonomy of the Lonchodectidae (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea)"
.
Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS
.
324
(1): 41?55.
doi
:
10.31610/trudyzin/2020.324.1.41
.
- ^
Wellnhofer, Peter
(1996) [1991].
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs
. New York: Barnes and Noble Books. pp. 110?113.
ISBN
0-7607-0154-7
.
- ^
Unwin, David M.
(2003). "On the phylogeny and evolutionary history of pterosaurs". In Buffetaut, Eric; Mazin Jean-Michel (eds.).
Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs
. Geological Society Special Publication. Vol. 217. London: Geological Society. pp.
139
?190.
ISBN
1-86239-143-2
.
- ^
Longrich, Nicholas R.; Martill, David M.; Andres, Brian (2018).
"Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary"
.
PLOS Biology
.
16
(3): e2001663.
doi
:
10.1371/journal.pbio.2001663
.
PMC
5849296
.
PMID
29534059
.
- ^
Unwin, D.M. (2006).
The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.
Pi Press: New York, p. 251.
ISBN
0-13-146308-X
.
- ^
Unwin, D.M. (2006).
The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.
Pi Press: New York, p. 106.
ISBN
0-13-146308-X
.