''Cuspicephalus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

monofenestratan Monofenestrata is an unranked group of pterosaurs that includes the family Wukongopteridae and the suborder Pterodactyloidea. The clade Monofenestrata was in 2009/2010 defined as the group consisting of ''Pterodactylus'' and all species sharing ...

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...

known from

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Its fossil remains date back to the Late Jurassic period.

Discovery

''Cuspicephalus'' is known from the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

MJML K1918, a partial

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

which is missing the

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

and

dentition Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiolo ...

, preserved on a single slab. It was collected in December 2009 by

Steve Etches Steve Etches, MBE (born in 1949) is an English plumber, fossil collector and preparator in Kimmeridge, on the Isle of Purbeck. From an early age on, Etches began to find, collect and restore the fossils he found on the Jurassic Coast. His collec ...

from

Kimmeridge Bay Kimmeridge Bay () is a bay on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England, close to and southeast of the village of Kimmeridge, on the Smedmore Estate. The area is renowned for its fossils, with The Etche ...

on the Isle of Purbeck coast of

. This locality is referred to the ''Autissiodorensis'' ammonite biozone of the lower part of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation, dating to the early Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic, about 155.7-153

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago). ...

Naming and etymology

''Cuspicephalus'' was named by

David M. Martill David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and Steve Etches in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

is ''Cuspicephalus scarfi''. The generic name is derived from ''cuspis'',

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "point", after its pointed rostrum, and a Latinised Greek κεφαλή, ''kephalè'', for "head". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honors artist and cartoonist

Gerald Scarfe Gerald Anthony Scarfe (born 1 June 1936) is an English cartoonist and illustrator. He has worked as editorial cartoonist for ''The Sunday Times'' and illustrator for ''The New Yorker''. His other work includes graphics for rock group Pink Flo ...

for his vicious caricatures which mostly have very pointy noses.

Description

The skull is lightly built and has a length of 326 millimetres. It is very elongated, being just 55 millimetres high at the back, and has an triangular profile. Almost half of its length is accounted for by a large skull opening, the ''fenestra nasoantorbitalis'', a confluence of the original ''fenestra antorbitalis'' with the bony nostrils. In front of this opening a low and elongated snout is present. The

rostral index Rostral may refer to: Anatomy * Rostral (anatomical term), situated toward the oral or nasal region * Rostral bone, in ceratopsian dinosaurs * Rostral organ, of certain fish * Rostral scale, in snakes and scaled reptiles Other uses * Rostral colu ...

''sensu'' Naish & Martill of this snout, in this case its length divided by its maximum height, is 5.4, the highest value known for any pterosaur. In the snout about eleven or twelve teeth are present; the total for the upper jaw is estimated at twenty-five to thirty. The teeth are largest in front and gradually decline in size towards the back. They have a broad base with an oval cross-section. Perhaps they are pointing outwards to a degree but the deformation of the fossil by compression makes this uncertain. On top of the skull, behind the snout proper, above the ''fenestra'' a longitudinal low bony crest is present. It consists of fibrous bone, vertically directed, which might have formed the base for a much higher crest of soft tissue. The crest starts above the twelfth tooth position; its limit at the back is unknown because of damage but it is considered unlikely that it extended as far as the eyes, the roof of the skull not showing any trace of it. The crest is highest in the (preserved) middle.

Phylogeny

The describers did not perform a cladistic analysis to determine the exact place of ''Cuspicephalus'' in pterosaur

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

. Using the comparative method, they noticed a resemblance to ''

Germanodactylus ''Germanodactylus'' ("German finger") is a genus of germanodactylid pterodactyloid pterosaur from Upper Jurassic-age rocks of Germany, including the Solnhofen Limestone. Its specimens were long thought to pertain to '' Pterodactylus''. The hea ...

''. Until recently pterosaurs with a head shape like that of ''Cuspicephalus'' would as a matter of course been assigned to the Pterodactyloidea. Today it is known however that more basal groups had comparable heads, so the describers placed ''Cuspicephalus'' as a member of the more general

Monofenestrata Monofenestrata is an unranked group of pterosaurs that includes the family Wukongopteridae and the suborder Pterodactyloidea. The clade Monofenestrata was in 2009/2010 defined as the group consisting of ''Pterodactylus'' and all species sharing ...

. A more thorough analysis published in 2015 found that ''Cuspicephalus'' was likely a primitive monofenestratan pterosaur, and, specifically, a member of the group Wukongopteridae.

References

External links