''Ornithostoma'' (meaning "bird mouth") is a
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 ...
of
pterodactyloid
Pterodactyloidea (derived from the Greek words ''πτερόν'' (''pterón'', for usual ''ptéryx'') "wing", and ''δάκτυλος'' (''dáktylos'') "finger" meaning "winged finger", "wing-finger" or "finger-wing") is one of the two traditional ...
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 ...
that lived during the
Early Cretaceous
The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma.
Geology
Pro ...
period (
Albian
The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0.9 M ...
stage) of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, around 110 million years ago. ''Ornithostoma'' was once thought to have been a senior synonym of the
pteranodontid ''
Pteranodon
''Pteranodon'' (); from Ancient Greek (''pteron'', "wing") and (''anodon'', "toothless") is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with ''P. longiceps'' having a wingspan of . They lived during the late Cr ...
'' due to its toothless anatomy and prior naming.
[
]
History
In 1869, Harry Govier Seeley
Harry Govier Seeley (18 February 1839 – 8 January 1909) was a British paleontologist.
Early life
Seeley was born in London on 18 February 1839, the second son of Richard Hovill Seeley, a goldsmith, and his second wife Mary Govier. When his fat ...
, cataloguing the fossils of the Sedgwick Museum
The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the university's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge, England. The Sedgw ...
at Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, referred three snout fragments of toothless pterosaur specimens from the Lower Cretaceous
Lower may refer to:
*Lower (surname)
*Lower Township, New Jersey
*Lower Receiver (firearms)
*Lower Wick
Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eight ...
Albian
The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0.9 M ...
Cambridge Greensand
The Cambridge Greensand is a geological unit in England whose strata are earliest Cenomanian in age. It lies above the erosive contact between the Gault Formation and the Chalk Group in the vicinity of Cambridgeshire, and technically forms the lo ...
of 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 ...
to ''Ornithocheirus
''Ornithocheirus'' (from Ancient Greek "ὄρνις", meaning ''bird'', and "χεῖρ", meaning ''hand'') is a pterosaur genus known from fragmentary fossil remains uncovered from sediments in the UK and possibly Morocco.
Several species have ...
simus''. These fragments had in 1859 been described by Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.
Owe ...
(who considered the later holotype jaw fragment part of a metacarpal) and referred to ''Pterodactylus
''Pterodactylus'' (from Greek () meaning 'winged finger') is an extinct genus of pterosaurs. It is thought to contain only a single species, ''Pterodactylus antiquus'', which was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying rept ...
sedgwickii'' and ''Pterodactylus fittoni''. By 1871 Seeley had realised ''Ornithocheirus simus'' was a toothed form, different from the fragments. Therefore, he provisionally named them as a separate genus ''Ornithostoma'', the name derived from Greek ὄρνις, ''ornis'', "bird", and στόμα, ''stoma'', "mouth". Seeley as yet provided no specific name. In 1891 however, he named 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 ...
''Ornithostoma sedgwicki'' Seeley 1891, apart from the snout fragments also referring to pelvis elements, claiming it was identical to ''Pteranodon
''Pteranodon'' (); from Ancient Greek (''pteron'', "wing") and (''anodon'', "toothless") is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with ''P. longiceps'' having a wingspan of . They lived during the late Cr ...
'' and had priority. On that occasion he also selected a genolectotype from the three fragments, 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 ...
of the type species: specimen CAMSM B.54485.
Samuel Wendell Williston
Samuel Wendell Williston (July 10, 1852 – August 30, 1918) was an American educator, entomologist, and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from tr ...
in 1893 independently also considered ''Ornithostoma'' a synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
of ''Pteranodon ingens''. He therefore renamed ''Pteranodon'' species: ''Ornithostoma ingens'' (Marsh 1872) Williston 1893 = ''Pteranodon ingens'' (= ''P. longiceps'') and ''Ornithostoma harpyia'' (Cope
The cope (known in Latin as ''pluviale'' 'rain coat' or ''cappa'' 'cape') is a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colours, litu ...
1872) = ''P. longiceps''. Williston also created a special family and subfamily for ''Ornithostoma'': the Ornithostomatidae and the Ornithostomatinae. Today, these concepts are no longer used. Williston indicated ''O. ingens'' as the type species, not knowing one had already been designated.[Williston, S.W., 1893, "Kansas pterodactyls, Part II", ''Kansas University Quarterly'', 2: 97-81] However, Richard Lydekker
Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was an English naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history.
Biography
Richard Lydekker was born at Tavistock Square in London. His father was Gerard Wolfe Lydekker, ...
denied the identity in 1904 and, also unaware of Seeley's earlier species name, created a purported (third) type species ''O. seeleyi''.
The holotype specimen is a snout fragment with a length of about five centimetres or two inches. It represents a triangular cross-section of the snout, about an inch high. There is no crest and the jaws are toothless but featuring low protruding rims. The fragment is tapering towards the front, the upper edge inclining under an angle of 12°, indicating the snout tip was located about ten centimetres to the front of the breakage forming the anterior edge of the fragment.[
]
In 1914, Reginald Walter Hooley
Reginald Walter Hooley (5 September 1865 – 5 May 1923) was a businessman and amateur paleontologist, collecting on the Isle of Wight. He is probably best remembered for describing the dinosaur ''Iguanodon atherfieldensis'', now ''Mantellisaurus ...
reviewed the material. He, incorrectly, claimed the pelvis elements were misidentified parts of the notarium
Notarium or os dorsale is a bone consisting of the fused vertebra of the shoulder in birds and some pterosaurs. The structure helps brace the chest against the forces generated by the wings. In birds, the vertebrae are only in contact with adjac ...
of the shoulder girdle and referred several additional specimens to ''Ornithostoma'', among them a skull fragment featuring a crest base, specimen CAMSM B.54406, and postcrania Postcrania (postcranium, adjective: postcranial) in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g. of dinosaurs or other extinct tetrapods, consist of partial or isolated sk ...
l fragments such as vertebrae and limbs.
In a 1994 paper, S. Christopher Bennett like Lydekker considered ''Ornithostoma'' to be distinct from ''Pteranodon'', mainly because of the lower edge ridges of the jaw. He also concluded that it was a ''nomen dubium
In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application.
Zoology
In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...
''. This in 2001 was rejected however, by David Unwin
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 ...
who thought ''Ornithostoma'' to be a valid genus belonging to the Pteranodontidae
The Pteranodontidae are a family of large pterosaurs of the Cretaceous Period of North America and Africa. The family was named in 1876 by Othniel Charles Marsh. Pteranodontids had a distinctive, elongated crest jutting from the rear of the head ( ...
, but limited the referable material to the original three fragments, including perhaps CAMSM B.54406. Hooley's postcranial fragments he referred to ''Lonchodectes
''Lonchodectes'' (meaning "lance biter") was a genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from several formations dating to the Turonian (Late Cretaceous) of England, mostly in the area around Kent. The species belonging to it had been assigned to ''Orni ...
''. In 2012, Alexander O. Averianov again recombined the holotype with CAMSM B.54406 and selected postcrania, the combination showing traits that indicated a position in the Azhdarchoidea
Azhdarchoidea (or azhdarchoids) is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea, more specifically within the group Ornithocheiroidea. Pterosaurs belonging to this group lived throughout the Early and Late Cretaceous periods, with ...
, representing an animal similar in some ways to '' Tapejara''.[Averianov, A.O. (2012). "''Ornithostoma sedgwicki'' – valid taxon of azhdarchoid pterosaurs." ''Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS'', 316(1): 40–49.]
There has also been an ''Ornithostoma'' species based on a find from Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. In 1914 Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolubov
Nikolay Nikolayevich Bogolyubov (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Боголю́бов; 21 August 1909 – 13 February 1992), also transliterated as Bogoliubov and Bogolubov, was a Soviet and Russian mathematician and theoretic ...
named a single large vertebra found near Petrovsk ''Ornithostoma orientalis''.[Bogolubov, N.N., 1914, "O pozvonk’ pterodaktilya uz’ vyerkhnyem’lovyikh’ otlozhyenii Saratovskoi gubyernii", ''Ezhegodnik po Geologii i Mineralogii Rossii'', 16: 1–7] The name was emended to ''O. orientale'' by George Olshevsky in 1991 because ''stoma'' is neuter. It has been renamed ''Bogolubovia
''Bogolubovia'' is a genus of pterosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (early Campanian) Rybushka Formation of Petrovsk, Saratov Oblast, Russia. It is named for Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolubov, the paleontologist who discovered the remains in 1914. It ...
orientalis'' (Nesov & Yarkov 1989) and been transferred from the Pteranodontidae
The Pteranodontidae are a family of large pterosaurs of the Cretaceous Period of North America and Africa. The family was named in 1876 by Othniel Charles Marsh. Pteranodontids had a distinctive, elongated crest jutting from the rear of the head ( ...
to the Azhdarchidae.
In 2020, Roy E. Smith and colleagues restricted ''Ornithostoma'' to include only jaw fragments, and considered it an azhdarchoid.
See also
* List of pterosaur genera
This list of pterosaurs is a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the order Pterosauria, excluding purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera that are now considered inval ...
* Timeline of pterosaur research
This timeline of pterosaur research is a chronologically ordered list of important fossil discoveries, controversies of interpretation, and taxonomic revisions of pterosaurs, the famed flying reptiles of the Mesozoic era. Although pterosaurs w ...
References
Pterosauria Translation & Pronunciation Guide
{{Portalbar, Paleontology, Cretaceous, United Kingdom
Azhdarchoids
Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Europe
Taxa named by Harry Seeley
Fossil taxa described in 1871
Albian life