Moganopterus zhuiana
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Moganopterus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 124.5 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Clade: | †Ctenochasmatoidea |
| Genus: |
†Moganopterus Lü et al., 2012 |
| Type species | |
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†Moganopterus zhuiana Lü et al., 2012 |
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Moganopterus is an extinct genus of boreopterid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of western Liaoning Province, China.
The fossil of Moganopterus was discovered at the village of Xiaosanjiazi near the town of Lamadong in Liaoning Province. In 2012 it was named and described by Lü Junchang, Pu Hanyong, Xu Li, Wu Yanhua and Wei Xuefang as the type species Moganopterus zhuiana. The generic name is derived from the legendary sword couple Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, in reference to the blade-like jaws, and a Latinised Greek πτερόν, pteron, "wing". The specific name honours Ms. Zhu Haifen, who made the specimen available to science.
The holotype, 41HIII0419, was uncovered in a layer of the Yixian Formation, dating from the Aptian, about 125 million years old. It consists of an almost complete skull with lower jaws and the second to fourth neck vertebrae. The fossil is compressed on a slab and counterslab, the splitting of the two plates having damaged some bones. The specimen is part of the collection of the Geological Museum of Henan.
Moganopterus is a large pterosaur. The skull has a preserved length of about ninety-five centimetres and the longest preserved neck vertebra, the fourth, a length of 14.5 centimetres. The skull is the largest known of any toothed pterosaur. The size of skull and neck indicates a wing span of at least five metres and probably of over 7 metres (23 ft), making Moganopterus one of the largest known pterosaurs.
Apart from the size, the describers established some diagnostic traits. The jaws are very elongated and have straight edges. The total number of teeth in the skull is at least sixty-two. The large skull opening, the fenestra nasoantorbitalis, is rectangular and represents 22% of the snout length. The back of the skull bears a long and narrow parietal crest, sticking out at an angle of 15° to the longitudinal skull axis. Not taking into account the crest, the skull is 11.5 times longer than tall. The neck vertebrae are five times longer than high.
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