Lonchodectes compressirostris (Owen, 1851)

Averianov, A. O., 2020, Taxonomy of the Lonchodectidae (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea), Proceedings of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences 324 (1), pp. 41-55 : 46-47

Lonchodectes compressirostris (Owen, 1851)

( Fig. 1 )

Pterodactylus compressirostris : Owen 1851a: 95, pl. 27, fig. 5, pl. 28, figs 8–10; Owen 1851b: 32, pl. 5, figs 1–3; Rodrigues and Kellner 2013: 52 , fig. 14.

Ornithochirus compressirostris : Seeley 1870: 114; Lydekker 1888: 11; Woodward 1888: 336.

Ornithocheirus compressirostris : Arthaber 1922: 16, fig. 5; Wellnhofer 1978: 56, fig. 4; Milner 2002: 340.

Lonchodectes compressirostris : Hooley 1914: 535; Unwin 2001: tab. 1, fig. 11A, B; Martill 2011: fig. 2.

Holotype. NHMUK PV 39410 , partial rostrum

in two fragments.

Type locality and horizon. Culand Pits, Burham, Kent, England; Chalk Formation (Cenomanian-Turonian).

Referred specimens. CAMS B54.584, rostrum fragment; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England; Cambridge Greensand (Albian).

Diagnosis. As for the genus.

Comments. Two parts of the holotype were considered as parts of a single rostrum in the original description ( Owen 1851a, b) and most subsequent publications. Kellner (1990) challenged this view, considering the smaller part as a fragment of dentary symphysis based on the presence of a medial groove. This view was held in Rodrigues and Kellner (2013). However, what Kellner took for the medial groove is a palatal surface between the two narrowing rostral parapets ( Fig. 1C ). The medial groove on lonchodectid dentaries is separated from the alveolar parapet by flat mandibular surface ( Fig. 1C ). There is no reason to change the interpretation of NHMUK PV 39410 rostral fragments and no need to renumber the specimens. This taxon might not have the medial groove on the symphysis at all because it has a short palatal ridge placed far behind the supposed symphysis. Following their interpretation of a small part of NHMUK PV 39410 as a mandibular symphysis, Rodrigues and Kellner (2013) consider P. compressirostris to lack the mandibular crest and did not include this taxon in their family Lonchodraconidae .

Owen referred to Pterodactylus compressirostris an associated ulna and radius (NHMUK 49004) and two proximal fragments of first wing phalanx (NHMUK 39411 and 49003; Lydekker (1888: 12)) from the type locality ( Owen 1851a: pl. 30, figs 4–5, pl. 32, fig. 2). However, as these bones were not directly associated with the holotype and there at least two other pterosaur species in the type locality, these specimens are not included in the hypodigm of L. compressirostris .

Figures

Fig. 1. Lonchodectes compressirostris (Owen, 1851), NHMUK PV 39410, holotype, partial rostrum in two pieces, in lateral (A) and ventral (B) views (after Owen, 1851a: pl. 28, figs 7–8). C – scheme explaining the difference between the anterior part of the rostrum and the anterior part of mandibular symphysis with mandibular groove. On the rostrum, the flat palatal surface is between the raised alveolar borders (alveolar parapet). On the mandibular symphysis, the mandibular groove is a depression flanked by the flat surface of the mandibular symphysis. Scale bar = 10 mm.