Gwawinapterus
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Gwawinapterus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 75 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Ichthyodectiformes |
| Family: | †Saurodontidae |
| Genus: |
†Gwawinapterus Arbour & Currie, 2011 |
| Species: | †G. beardi |
| Binomial name | |
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Gwawinapterus beardi Arbour & Currie, 2011 |
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Gwawinapterus is a genus of Mesozoic fish known from a single fossil specimen, representing the single species Gwawinapterus beardi, from the late Cretaceous period of British Columbia, Canada. While initially described as a very late-surviving member of the pterosaur (flying reptile) group Istiodactylidae, further examination has cast doubt on the identification of the specimen as a pterosaur, and research published in 2012 identified the remains as having come from a saurodontid fish.
Gwawinapterus beardi is known from a single fossil specimen, consisting only of the front half of a skull (upper and lower jaws). The tip of the snout is rounded and deep with a height of about 9.5 centimetres (3.7 in). The tip is about 6.5 centimetres (2.6 in) from the front edge of the largest skull opening, or fenestra. Below this opening the upper jaw is about 21 millimetres (0.83 in) tall. The jaw was originally suggested to be a sutureless fusion of the premaxilla and maxilla of a reptile. Each upper jaw holds at least 26 teeth, eleven or twelve of them below the fenestra; the front of the tooth row has not been preserved and the fossil is broken at its end. The teeth are closely packed. The tooth crowns are small, 4 millimetres (0.16 in) tall and 2.75 millimetres (0.108 in) wide, flattened, and triangular with slightly curved edges. The edges are not serrated, but rounded. The teeth are very straight, showing no curvature to either the back or the middle. The more narrow single tooth roots are relatively long, about 10 to 12 millimetres (0.39 to 0.47 in), for a total tooth length of about 14 millimetres (0.55 in).
The describers have identified two unique derived features (autapomorphies): a number of more than 25 teeth in the upper jaw and a tooth root more than twice as long as the crown.
In May 2005, amateur paleontologist Sharon Hubbard found a rock with bones and teeth visible on the surface on a beach near Collishaw Point at Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada. Accompanying her was Graham Beard, the President of the Vancouver Island Paleontology Museum Society at Qualicum Beach, who added the fossil to its collection. Beard brought the find to the attention of paleontologist Philip J. Currie. He in turn obtained the help of colleague Victoria M. Arbour who identified the specimen as a pterosaur new to science.
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