''Lonchodectes'' (meaning "

lance A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier (lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike s ...

biter") was a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of lonchodectid

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 ...

from several formations dating to the

Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded b ...

(

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

) 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 ...

, mostly in the area around

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. The species belonging to it had been assigned 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 ...

'' until

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 ...

's work of the 1990s and 2000s.Kellner, A.W.A. (2003). Pterosaur phylogeny and comments on the evolutionary history of the group: In: Buffetaut, E., and Mazin, J.-M. (Eds.). ''Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs''. Geological Society Special Publication 217:105-137. 1-86239-143-2. Several potential species are known; most are based on scrappy remains, and have gone through several other generic assignments. The genus is part of the complex

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

issues surrounding Early Cretaceous pterosaurs from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and England, such as ''

Amblydectes ''Amblydectes'' is a genus of pterosaur known from jaw fragments. It apparently had a jaw flattened towards the tip and triangular in cross-section. It has at times been synonymized with ''Coloborhynchus'', ''Criorhynchus'', '' Lonchodectes'', ...

'', ''

Anhanguera Anhanguera may refer to: People * Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva (1672–1740), a bandeirante Places in Brazil * Anhanguera, Goiás, a municipality in the state of Goiás * Anhanguera (district of São Paulo), a district in São Paulo * Parque Anhan ...

'', ''

Coloborhynchus ''Coloborhynchus'' is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur belonging to the family Anhangueridae, though it has also been recovered as a member of the Ornithocheiridae in some studies. ''Coloborhynchus'' is known from the Lower Cretaceous of Engl ...

'', and ''Ornithocheirus''.

History and species

Numerous species have been referred to this genus over time, and only those more widely connected with the genus are included here. 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 specime ...

, ''L. compressirostris'', is based on NHMUK 39410, a partial upper jaw from the Turonian-age Upper Cretaceous Upper Chalk near Kent. Richard Owen named in 1851 as a species of ''

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 ...

'';Owen, R. (1851). Monograph on the fossil Reptilia of the Cretaceous Formations. ''The Palaeontographical Society'' 5(11):1-118. it was transferred to ''Ornithocheirus'' in 1870 by

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 ...

,Seeley, H.G. (1870). ''The Ornithosauria: an Elementary Study of the Bones of Pterodactyles''. Cambridge, 130 pp. before becoming the type species of ''Lonchodectes'' in

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 ...

's 1914 review of ''Ornithocheirus''.Hooley, R.W. (1914). On the Ornithosaurian genus ''Ornithocheirus'' with a review of the specimens from the Cambridge Greensand in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'', series 8, 78:529-557. Confusingly, this species was also long regarded, incorrectly, as the type species of ''Ornithocheirus''. A variety of postcranial remains resembling those of Azhdarchoids from the Cambridge Greensand have been referred to ''Lonchodectes''; however, much of this material has since been referred to ''

Ornithostoma ''Ornithostoma'' (meaning "bird mouth") is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period (Albian stage) of Europe, around 110 million years ago. ''Ornithostoma'' was once thought to have been a senior synonym ...

''.Averianov, A.O. (2012). "''Ornithostoma sedgwicki'' – valid taxon of azhdarchoid pterosaurs." ''Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS'', 316(1): 40–49.

Formerly assigned species

Hooley added two other species at this time, both of which had also been originally referred to ''Pterodactylus'', then to ''Ornithocheirus'': ''L. giganteus'', a Cenomanian-age jaw fragment from the Chalk of Kent;Bowerbank, J.S. (1846). On a New Species of Pterodactyl. Found in the Upper Chalk of Kent (P. giganteus). ''Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society'' 2:7–9. and ''L. daviesii'', another jaw fragment, from the

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 ...

-age Gault Clay.Owen, R. (1874). ''A Monograph on the Fossil Reptilia of the Mesozoic Formations. 1. Pterosauria.'' ''The Palaeontographical Society Monograph'' 27:1–14. ''"Pterodactylus" sagittirostris'', based on NHMUK R.1823, a lower jaw fragment from the ?

Valanginian In the geologic timescale, the Valanginian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Cretaceous. It spans between 139.8 ± 3.0 Ma and 132.9 ± 2.0 Ma (million years ago). The Valanginian Stage succeeds the Berriasian Stage of the Lower Cretace ...

Hauterivian The Hauterivian is, in the geologic timescale, an age in the Early Cretaceous Epoch or a stage in the Lower Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 132.9 ± 2 Ma and 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago). The Hauterivian is preceded by the ...

-age Lower Cretaceous Hastings Beds of East Sussex, ''"Ornithocheirus" platystomus'', ''"Ornithocheirus" machaerorhynchus'', and ''"O." microdon'' were assigned to ''Lonchodectes'' in a 2001 review by David Unwin of Cambridge Greensand pterosaurs. joining ''L. compressirostris'', ''L. giganteus'', ''L. platystomus'', and ''L. sagittirostris'' in his listing of valid species.Unwin, D.M. (2006). ''The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.'' Pi Press:New York, p. 273. . However, ''L. giganteus'', ''L. machaerorhynchus'', and ''L. microdon'' have since been assigned to a new genus, ''

Lonchodraco ''Lonchodraco'' is a genus of lonchodraconid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of southern England. The genus includes species that were previously assigned to other genera. Discovery and naming In 1846, James Scott Bowerbank ...

'', while ''L. sagittirostris'' has been renamed '' Serradraco''.Rodrigues, T.; Kellner, A. (2013). "Taxonomic review of the ''Ornithocheirus'' complex (Pterosauria) from the Cretaceous of England". ZooKeys 308: 1. doi:10.3897/zookeys.308.5559. edit ''L. platystomus'' may be a species of ''

''. In 2020, a review of Lonchodectidae was conducted by paleontologist Alexander Averianov, where he reassigned the species ''L. machaerorhynchus'' to the genus '' Ikrandraco'' due to similarities in rostral morphology, as ''I. machaerorhynchus'', and he also considered ''L. microdon'' a junior synonym of ''machaerorhynchus''. Therefore, ''Lonchodectes'' is limited to its type species, ''L. compressirostris''.

Classification

Ornithocheirus compressirostris by von Arthaber

In Peter Wellnhofer's 1991 ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs'', written before Unwin's work, the species were included within ''Ornithocheirus'' (because of ''L. compressirostris'' being thought to be the type species), and are in fact the main fossils illustrated to represent the genus. In 2003, Unwin placed them in their own family,

Lonchodectidae Lonchodectidae or LonchodraconidaePêgas, R.V., Holgado, B., Leal, M.E.C., 2019. "''Targaryendraco wiedenrothi'' gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pter ...

, which he grouped within the group

Ctenochasmatoidea Ctenochasmatoidea is a group of early pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Their remains are usually found in what were once coastal or lake environments. They generally had long wings, long necks, and highly specialized teeth. Evol ...

, while in 2006, he placed the family Lonchodectidae within the Azhdarchoidea, the group that includes the

tapejarids Tapejaridae (from a Tupi word meaning "the old being") are a family of pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Cretaceous period. Members are currently known from Brazil, England, Hungary, Morocco, Spain, the United States, and China. The most primit ...

and azhdarchids. The cladogram below is a topology recovered by Longrich and colleagues in 2018. In their analysis, they placed ''Lonchodectes'' within the family Lonchodectidae as the sister taxon of ''Lonchodraco''. Contrary to previous analyses, Longrich and colleagues placed Lonchodectidae (including ''Lonchodectes'') within the more inclusive group

Ornithocheiromorpha Ornithocheiromorpha (from Ancient Greek, meaning "bird hand form") is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Fossil remains of this group date back from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods (Valanginian to Turonian stages ...

.Longrich, N.R., Martill, D.M., and Andres, B. (2018)
"Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary."
''PLoS Biology'', 16(3): e2001663.

Paleobiology

''Lonchodectes'' had long jaws with many short teeth, and the jaws were compressed vertically, like "a pair of sugar tongs with teeth".Unwin, D.M. (2006). ''The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.'' Pi Press:New York, p. 251. . Related species (including several taxa formerly included within the genus) had crests on their lower jaws, so the same probably also applied to ''L. compressirostris''.Unwin, D.M. (2006). ''The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.'' Pi Press:New York, p. 106. .

References

External links