ENGLISH_282_STUDY

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 4

Evelyn Faughnan

ENGLISH

ENGLISH_282_STUDY

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), around 140 to

92.5 million years ago.Ornithocheiromorphs were discovered worldwide except Antarctica,

though most genera were recovered in Europe, Asia and South America.They were the most

diverse and successful pterosaurs during the Early Cretaceous, but throughout the Late

Cretaceous they were replaced by pteranodontians and azhdarchoids.The

Ornithocheiromorpha was defined in 2014 by Andres and colleagues, and they made

Ornithocheiromorpha the most inclusive clade containing Ornithocheirus, but not

Pteranodon.Ornithocheiromorphs are considered to be some of the largest animals to have

ever flown.Members of this group are also regarded to have some of the largest pterosaur

wingspans, such as the one estimated for the huge Tropeognathus, though still not as large

as those estimated for the azhdarchids, which may have reached up to 12 meters (39

ft).When ornithocheiromorphs first appeared, they were initially scavengers, consisting in a

more terrestrial setting, but their success had made them the top predators of the skies, as

well as the most common type of fish-eating pterosaur throughout the early Late

Cretaceous.Some paleontologists also consider ornithocheiromorphs an earlier step of

evolution to the pteranodontians, this is due to the similar flying techniques and flight

locomotions, as well as their diet, which mainly consisted of fish, and therefore also hunted

very similarly.Ornithocheiromorphs also flew like soaring birds, keeping their wings
stretched and rarely flapping.== History of research ==

=== Early discoveries ===

The first specimens of ornithocheiromorphs were unearthed at a chalk pit near Burham in

Kent, England.In 1846, British paleontologist James Scott Bowerbank named and described

the remains found as Pterodactylus giganteus, as it was common at that time to assign any

new described pterosaur species to Pterodactylus.In the same chalk pit as P. giganteus, two

other pterosaur species were discovered.The first was named in 1851 by Bowerbank as

Pterodactylus cuvieri, in honor of the prominent German naturalist and zoologist Georges

Cuvier, while the second was described in the same year by British paleontologist Sir

Richard Owen as Pterodactylus compressirostris.P. compressirostris later became the type

species of a newly created genus called Lonchodectes (meaning "lance biter") in a review by

English paleontologist Reginald Walter Hooley in 1914.Confusingly, this species was also

long regarded, incorrectly, as the type species of Ornithocheirus.In 1861, further pterosaur

specimens were found in the UK, and were given the new species Pterodactylus simus by

Owen.British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley then created the new genus

Ornithocheirus for the new species in the same year, the generic name translating as "bird

hand" is due to the notion of the time that pterosaurs were the ancestors of modern birds.In

1870, Seeley reassigned the species Pterodactylus cuvieri as Ornithocheirus cuvieri.In 1874,

Richard Owen proposed two new genera, Coloborhynchus, meaning "maimed beak", and

Criorhynchus, meaning "ram beak".While Coloborhynchus consisted in a totally new type

species, C. clavirostris, as well as two other species reassigned from Ornithocheirus,

Criorhynchus consisted entirely of former Ornithocheirus species, including O. simus, which


was later reassigned by Owen as Criorhynchus simus.In 2013, Brazilian paleontologists

Taissa Rodrigues & Alexander Kellner made a deeper analysis on the species Pterodactylus

cuvieri.In the analysis, they stated that it needed a separate genus, and assigning it to

Ornithocheirus was inappropriate, therefore, they created the new genus called

Cimoliopterus, with the new resulting combination Cimoliopterus cuvieri.In the same study,

Rodrigues & Kellner also reviewed the species Pterodactylus giganteus, and reassigned it to

a newly created genus called Lonchodraco, this resulted in a new combination called

Lonchodraco giganteus.In 1887, Seeley had described new fossil remains from the Isle of

Wight, an island off the coast of southern England.He thought it belonged to some kind of

bird-like creature, which he named it Ornithodesmus cluniculus.Seeley also reported

another specimen found on the same site.He then considered it another species of

Ornithodesmus.In 1901, Seeley named this new species as O. latidens, meaning "wide

tooth".Later, Reginald Hooley discussed O. latidens in detail, based on specimens he had

found, which led Ornithodesmus to be placed within a new family called

Ornithodesmidae.Paleontologist Charles William Andrews however, had expressed doubts

as to whether O. latidens belonged in the genus Ornithodesmus, as the vertebrae of the

specimen of that genus was based on differed markedly from those of Hooley's specimen.In

1993, the British paleontologists Stafford C. Howse and Andrew C. Milner concluded that

the holotype sacrum and only specimen of O. cluniculus didn't belong to a pterosaur, but

instead to a maniraptoran theropod dinosaur.They also pointed out that no detailed

attempts had been made to compare the sacrum of O. cluniculus with those of pterosaurs,

and that O. latidens had in effect been treated as the type species of the genus

Ornithodesmus.Howse, Milner, and David Martill in 2001, moved "O."latidens to a new

genus called Istiodactylus.They had also named a new family called Istiodactylidae, with

Istiodactylus as the only member.=== Discoveries outside Europe ===


Other important ornithocheiromorph discoveries include the anhanguerids Tropeognathus

and Anhanguera from the Romualdo Formation in Brazil.Tropeognathus was described

with its type species, T. mesembrinus in 1987 by German paleontologist Peter

Wellnhofer.The generic name is derived from Greek τρόπις, tropis, meaning "keel", and

γνάθος, gnathos, meaning "jaw".

You might also like