Lonchodectes

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Genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous

title: "Lonchodectes" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["pteranodontoidea", "late-cretaceous-pterosaurs-of-europe", "taxa-named-by-reginald-hooley", "fossil-taxa-described-in-1914", "turonian-genera", "pterosaur-genera"] description: "Genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous" topic_path: "general/pteranodontoidea" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonchodectes" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous ::

| fossil_range = Late Cretaceous, | image = Pterodactylus compressirostris.jpg | image_caption = Lectotype jaw fragment (A–D) and assigned rostrum fragment (E–H) | display_parents = 2 | parent_authority = Hooley, 1914 | taxon = Lonchodectes | authority = Hooley, 1914 | type_species = Pterodactylus compressirostris | type_species_authority = Owen, 1851 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision =

  • L. compressirostris (Owen, 1851) | synonyms = |Cimoliopterus? Rodrigues & Kellner, 2013 |Pterodactylus compressirostris Owen, 1851 |Ornithocheirus compressirostris (Owen, 1851) Seeley, 1870 |Pterodactylus cuvieri? Bowerbank, 1851 |Ornithocheirus cuvieri? (Bowerbank, 1851) Seeley, 1870 |Coloborhynchus cuvieri? (Bowerbank, 1851) Owen, 1874 |Anhanguera cuvieri? (Bowerbank, 1851) Bakhurina & Unwin, 1995 |Cimoliopterus cuvieri? (Bowerbank, 1851) Rodrigues & Kellner, 2013 |Ornithocheirus brachyrhinus? Seeley, 1870 |Pterodactylus fittoni? Owen, 1859 |Ornithocheirus fittoni? (Owen, 1859) Seeley, 1870 |Anhanguera fittoni? (Owen, 1859) Unwin, 2001

Lonchodectes (meaning "lance biter") is 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 Ornithocheirus until David Unwin's work of the 1990s and 2000s. 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 issues surrounding Early Cretaceous pterosaurs from Brazil and England, such as Amblydectes, Anhanguera, Coloborhynchus, and Ornithocheirus.

History and species

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Lonchodectes_compressirostris.jpg" caption="19th century lithograph of the lectotype and assigned specimen"] ::

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, 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; it was transferred to Ornithocheirus in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley, before becoming the type species of Lonchodectes in Reginald Walter Hooley's 1914 review of Ornithocheirus. 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.

In 2019, the Brazilian palaeontologist Rodrigo V. Pêgas and colleagues suggested that the type specimen of Lonchodectes compressirostris could represent the same species as Cimoliopterus cuvieri. They cautioned this is impossible to confirm until associated skull and mandible material is found.

Formerly assigned species

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Lonchodectes.jpg" caption="''L. compressirostris'' fossils in place with ''[[Pterodactylus]]'' as template"] ::

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; and L. daviesii, another jaw fragment, from the Albian-age Gault Clay.

"Pterodactylus" sagittirostris, based on NHMUK R.1823, a lower jaw fragment from the ?Valanginian-Hauterivian-age Lower Cretaceous Hastings Beds of East Sussex, However, L. giganteus, L. machaerorhynchus, and L. microdon have since been assigned to a new genus, Lonchodraco, while L. sagittirostris has been renamed Serradraco. L. platystomus may be a species of Amblydectes.

Classification

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Ornithocheirus_compressirostris_by_von_Arthaber.jpg" caption="1919 Reconstruction of the skull by von Arthaber"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Lonchodectes-concepts.png" caption="Hypothetical bauplan."] ::

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, which he grouped within the group Ctenochasmatoidea, while in 2006, he placed the family Lonchodectidae within the Azhdarchoidea, the group that includes the tapejarids 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. |label1=Ornithocheiromorpha |1={{clade |1=Hongshanopterus |2={{clade |1={{clade |label1=Lonchodectidae |1={{clade |1=Lonchodraco |2=Lonchodectes |label2=Boreopteridae |2={{clade |1=Boreopterus |2=Zhenyuanopterus |label2=Lanceodontia |2={{clade |label1=Istiodactylidae |1={{clade |1=Nurhachius |2={{clade |1=Liaoxipterus |2=Istiodactylus |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Aetodactylus |2=Cimoliopterus |2=Anhangueria

Paleobiology

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/OrnitocheiridsDB.jpg" caption="''Lonchodectes'' (left) attacked by the larger ''[[Cimoliopterus]]'' (right)"] ::

Lonchodectes had long jaws with many short teeth, and the jaws were compressed vertically, like "a pair of sugar tongs with teeth". 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.

References

References

  1. 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.
  2. Owen, R. (1851). Monograph on the fossil Reptilia of the Cretaceous Formations. ''The Palaeontographical Society'' '''5'''(11):1-118.
  3. Seeley, H.G. (1870). ''The Ornithosauria: an Elementary Study of the Bones of Pterodactyles''. Cambridge, 130 pp.
  4. 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.
  5. Unwin, David M.. (2001). "An overview of the pterosaur assemblage from the Cambridge Greensand (Cretaceous) of Eastern England". Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.
  6. Unwin, D.M. (2008)
  7. ''Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy'', Mark P. Witton (2013)
  8. Averianov, A.O. (2012). "''Ornithostoma sedgwicki'' – valid taxon of azhdarchoid pterosaurs." ''Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS'', '''316'''(1): 40–49.
  9. 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.
  10. Owen, R. (1874). ''A Monograph on the Fossil Reptilia of the Mesozoic Formations. 1. Pterosauria.'' ''The Palaeontographical Society Monograph'' '''27''':1–14.
  11. 0-13-146308-X.
  12. (2013). "Taxonomic review of the ''Ornithocheirus'' complex (Pterosauria) from the Cretaceous of England". ZooKeys.
  13. Stanislas Rigal; David M. Martill; Steven C. Sweetman (2017). "A new pterosaur specimen from the Upper Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation (Cretaceous, Valanginian) of southern England and a review of Lonchodectes sagittirostris (Owen 1874)". In D. W. E. Hone; M. P. Witton; D. M. Martill. New Perspectives on Pterosaur Palaeobiology. The Geological Society of London. doi:10.1144/SP455.5.
  14. Averianov, A.O.. (2020). "Taxonomy of the Lonchodectidae (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea)". Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS.
  15. Wellnhofer, Peter. (1996). "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs". Barnes and Noble Books.
  16. Unwin, David M.. (2003). "Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs". Geological Society.
  17. (2018). "Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary". PLOS Biology.
  18. Unwin, D.M. (2006). ''The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.'' Pi Press: New York, p. 251. {{ISBN. 0-13-146308-X.
  19. Unwin, D.M. (2006). ''The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time.'' Pi Press: New York, p. 106. {{ISBN. 0-13-146308-X.
  20. (2019). "On ''Targaryendraco wiedenrothi'' gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids". Historical Biology.

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