Guidraco

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Guidraco
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Holotype skull
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Suborder: †Pterodactyloidea
Family: †Anhangueridae
Subfamily: †Anhanguerinae
Genus: †Guidraco
Wang et al., 2012
Type species
†Guidraco venator
Wang et al., 2012

Guidraco (Chin. gui (鬼) "malicious ghost" + Lat. draco "dragon") is an

Anhanguerinae, a subfamily belonging to the larger group Anhangueridae
.

Discovery

Guidraco is known only from the

Liaoning Province from the Jiufotang Formation, dating to the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous, about 120 million years ago.[1]

Etymology

Guidraco was first described and named by

generic name is derived from Chinese gui (鬼), "malicious ghost", and from Latin draco, "dragon". The specific name means "hunter" in Latin.[1]

Description

Foam skeletal restoration

The holotype

jugal of which the front branch extends no further than the front edge of the fenestra nasoantorbitalis.[1]

The teeth of Guidraco are very distinctive. Of the twenty-three teeth of the upper jaw the first is long and very narrow, pointing nearly horizontally forward. The next three teeth are enormous in size, very long, robust, pointed and slightly recurved. They gradually point more downwards. These are followed by a series of three medium-length downward-pointing straight teeth, of which the middle one, the sixth, is the shortest. The remaining thirteen teeth constitute a long row of small elements gradually diminishing in size. This arrangement is mirrored by the eighteen teeth of the lower jaw. Here however, a forward pointing tooth is lacking. The first four teeth are of great size, even longer than their counterparts of the upper jaw. Next is a series of three straight teeth of medium height, followed by a row of eleven increasingly smaller elements for a grand total in the head of eighty-two teeth. With the fossil, the beak is closed and due to their extreme length the front teeth extend far beyond the upper and lower edges of the head, the protruding parts being up to twice as long as the depth of the snout or lower jaw. The teeth can also be divided into two types according to their built: the first nine teeth of the upper jaw and eight teeth of the lower jaw have vertical ridges on the back of their enamel; the back teeth have a uniformly smooth enamel and thickened crown bases, giving them a more triangular outline.[1]

Though not having the form of a true rosette because the jaw ends were not expanded, the intermeshing front teeth functioned as a "prey grab" to catch slippery animals; the describers therefore consider Guidraco to have been a fish-eater.[1]

The neck vertebrae are moderately elongated, keeled and possess large pneumatic openings on their sides, the access by which the air sac of the neck could enter their hollow interiors. The axis bears a spiked spine.[1]

Phylogeny

Guidraco was by the describers assigned to the

Anhanguerinae, sister taxon to the genera Caulkicephalus and Ludodactylus.[5][6][7][8] This would confirm that Guidraco is indeed closely related to Ludodactylus. The cladogram on the right is a topology made by Borja Holgado and Rodrigo Pêgas in 2020.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 7323552
    .
  2. PMID 25210867
    .
  3. PMID 28950013
    .
  4. ^
    PMID 24768054
    .
  5. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41280-4
  6. PMID 31784545
    .
  7. ^ Pêgas, 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 pterodactyloids", Historical Biology, 1–15. doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1690482
  8. PMID 31432888
    .
  9. ^
    doi:10.4202/app.00751.2020
    .
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