Lonchodraco
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Lonchodraco Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 112 Ma |
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| L. giganteus lectotype | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Family: | †Lonchodraconidae |
| Genus: |
†Lonchodraco Rodrigues & Kellner, 2013 |
| Type species | |
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†Pterodactylus giganteus Bowerbank, 1846 |
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| Species | |
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Lonchodraco is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Cretaceous of England. The genus includes species that were previously assigned to other genera.
In 1846, 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 giganteus. The specific name means "the gigantic one" in Latin. The same pit generated remains of Pterodactylus cuvieri. In 1848 Bowerbank published a histological study of the bone structure of P. giganteus.
At the time, the British Association Code of 1843 allowed to change names if they were inappropriate. In 1850, Richard Owen, considering the species not to have been particularly large, renamed it into Pterodactylus conirostris, "the cone-snouted", based on a conical snout, today part of specimen NHMUK PV 39412. However, after insistent objections by Bowerbank, Owen retracted this name in 1851, when he described the finds in more detail.
In 1914 Reginald Walter Hooley assigned the species to a new genus Lonchodectes, "the lance biter", as a Lonchodectes giganteus. In 2013, Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner concluded that the type species of Lonchodectes, Lonchodectes compressirostris, was a nomen dubium. Therefore they created a new genus Lonchodraco, combining Greek λόγχη, lonchē, "lance", with Latin draco, "dragon". Pterodactylus giganteus was made the type species of Lonchodraco, resulting in a Lonchodraco giganteus. Two other species previously assigned to Lonchodectes were moved to the new genus, resulting in a Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus and a Lonchodraco(?) microdon. The question mark in the latter name indicates that the authors were uncertain about the correctness of the assignment.
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