Gladocephaloideus
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Gladocephaloideus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 121 Ma |
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| Specimen JPM 2014–004 and line drawing | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Clade: | †Euctenochasmatia |
| Family: | †Ctenochasmatidae |
| Genus: |
†Gladocephaloideus Lü et al, 2012 |
| Species: | †G. jingangshanensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Gladocephaloideus jingangshanensis Lü et al, 2012 |
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Gladocephaloideus is a genus of gallodactylid ctenochasmatoid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of western Liaoning, China.
Gladocephaloideus is known from a complete skull and partial postcranial skeleton including traces of hair-like pycnofibres. It was collected from the Jingangshan Bed of the Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian stage, about 121 million years ago. It was named by Lü Junchang, Ji Qiang, Wei Xuefang and Liu Yongqing in 2012 and the type species is Gladocephaloideus jingangshanensis. The generic name is derived from Latin gladius, "sword", and Greek κεφαλή, kephalè, "head", en εἶδος, eidos, "form", referring to the elongated form of the skull. The specific name refers to the provenance from the Jiangangshan.
The holotype, IG-CAGS-08-07, includes the almost complete skull, the lower jaws, the front neck vertebrae and part of a hindlimb. In 2016, a second specimen was referred, JPM 2014–004, a juvenile from the Jiufotang Formation. It represents an almost complete skeleton, missing only the left hindlimb, the rear back vertebrae, the sacrum and the tail. Though the holotype was originally considered an adult, the new exemplar indicates that IG-CAGS-08-07 was a juvenile also.
The skull of the holotype has a length of 182 millimetres. In 2012 several distinguishing traits were established. The snout is elongated. The main skull opening, the fenestra nasoantorbitalis, is small with 13% of the total skull length. The part in front of it equals 63% of the skull length. The total number of teeth in the entire skull and lower jaws numbers about fifty. The teeth have sharp points.
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