''Serradraco'' is a genus of

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 ...

pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Valanginian aged

Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation The Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation is a geological unit which forms part of the Wealden Group and the uppermost and youngest part of the unofficial Hastings Beds. These geological units make up the core of the geology of the Weald in the English c ...

in England. Named by Rigal ''et al.'' in 2018 with the description of a second specimen, it contains a single species, ''S. sagittirostris'', which was formerly considered a species of ''

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 ...

'', ''L. sagittirostris''. In 2020, Averianov suggested it did not belong in Lonchodectidae. The second specimen, BEXHM 2015.18, consists of a small fragment of jaw with three teeth; six complete caudal vertebrae fused together and two fragmentary caudal vertebrae in articulation; a distal left ulna; a right proximal syncarpal; portions of a minimum of three phalanges and two indeterminate elements.

Discovery and naming

In 1874,

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 ...

named a pair of lower jaws from the collection of

Samuel Husband Beckles Samuel Husbands Beckles (12 April 1814, in Barbados – 4 September 1890, in Hastings) was a Bajan/English 19th-century lawyer, turned dinosaur hunter, who collected remains in Sussex and the Isle of Wight. In 1854 he described bird-like track ...

, found at

St Leonards-on-Sea St Leonards-on-Sea (commonly known as St Leonards) is a town and seaside resort in the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. It has been part of the borough since the late 19th century and lies to the west of central Hastings. The origina ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, as a new species of '' Pterodactylus'': ''Pterodactylus sagittirostris''. 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 ...

means "arrowhead-snouted" in Latin, referring to the mandible profile in upper view. In 1888, Edwin Tulley Newton, conforming to the soon to be published pterosaur systematics by Richard Lydekker, renamed the species into '' Ornithocheirus sagittirostris''. In July 1891, the British Museum (Natural History), the present Natural History Museum, bought the piece from the heirs of Beckles. 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 ...

renamed the species into ''

sagittirostris''. In 1919 however,

Gustav von Arthaber Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to: *Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin Art, entertainment, and media *Primeval (film), ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film *Gustav (film series), ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hu ...

again considered it an ''Ornithocheirus sagittirostris'', which was confirmed by Peter Wellnhofer in 1978. In 2001, David Unwin returned to the ''Lonchodectes sagittirostris'' designation. In 2013, Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner concluded that ''Lonchodectes sagittirostris'' lacked any distinguishing traits and was therefore 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 ...

''. In 2017, Stanislas Rigal, David Martill and Steven Sweetman disagreed with this and named a separate genus ''Serradraco'', resulting in the

new combination ''Combinatio nova'', abbreviated ''comb. nov.'' (sometimes ''n. comb.''), is Latin for "new combination". It is used in taxonomic biology literature when a new name is introduced based on a pre-existing name. The term should not to be confused wi ...

''Serradraco sagittirostris''. The type species of the genus is the original ''Pterodactylus sagittirostris''. The generic name is a combination of the Latin ''serra'', "saw" and ''draco'', "dragon", referring to the saw-like upper profile of the lower jaws.

Classification

In 2020, a phylogenetic analysis conducted by paleontologist Jordan Bestwick and colleagues recovered ''Serradraco'' as the sister taxon of '' Lonchodraco''. Their cladogram is presented below.

References

{{Portal bar, Paleontology, Cretaceous, United Kingdom Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2018 Pteranodontoids