Cimoliopterus
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Cimoliopterus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous - Late Cretaceous, 112–94 Ma |
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| Holotype fossils | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Clade: | †Pteranodontoidea |
| Genus: |
†Cimoliopterus Rodrigues & Kellner, 2013 |
| Type species | |
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†Pterodactylus cuvieri Bowerbank, 1851 |
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Cimoliopterus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Cretaceous of England, United Kingdom and Texas, United States.
The type species, Cimoliopterus cuvieri, was previously considered parts of several different genera depending on author, but received its own genus in 2013.
Bowerbank, extrapolating from the remains of P. giganteus, estimated a wingspan for P. cuvieri of sixteen feet and six inches, or about 5.04 metres, making it the largest flying animal, extinct or extant, known in 1851. This claim at the time was met with considerable scepticism, though it is today known much larger pterosaurs have lived.
In 2013, Rodrigues and Kellner established two unique derived traits, autapomorphies, for Cimoliopterus, making it unique among its relatives: its crest is placed far back on the premaxilla, at the level of the seventh tooth pair, but begins before the fenestra nasoantorbitalis, the large skull opening; there is a density of three teeth per three centimetres at the front of the upper jaw and of two teeth at the back of the jaw. Furthermore, Cimoliopterus shows a unique combination of by themselves not unique traits: the snout has a crest; the ridge on the midline of the palate, at the front reaches the level of the third tooth pair; the palate is curved upwards; there is no expansion of the jaw at the front; the second and third tooth pairs are about equally large and larger than the fourth tooth pair; to the rear the distance between the teeth gradually increases.
In 1851, James Scott Bowerbank named and described some remains found in a chalk pit at Burham near Maidstone in Kent, as a new species of Pterodactylus: Pterodactylus cuvieri. The specific name honours Georges Cuvier. The same pit had generated remains of Pterodactylus giganteus.
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