Normannognathus

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Normannognathus
Temporal range: Kimmeridgian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Clade: †Monofenestrata
Genus: †Normannognathus
Buffetaut, LePage & LePage, 1998
Species:
†N. wellnhoferi
Binomial name
†Normannognathus wellnhoferi
Buffetaut, LePage & LePage, 1998

Normannognathus is a

monofenestratan, or as the sister taxon of Cycnorhamphus within the family Gallodactylidae
.

Discovery and naming

In 1993, Jean-Jacques Lepage on the Normandy coast at the Cap de la Hève, near Ecqueville, Octeville-sur-Mer, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, found a ten centimetres long fossil of a pterosaur in a marine claystone layer.

In 1998,

Eric Buffetaut et al. named a separate genus for it. The type species is Normannognathus wellnhoferi. The genus name is derived from Normannia, the Medieval Latin name for Normandy, and Greek gnathos, "jaw". The specific name honors Peter Wellnhofer. The genus is based on holotype
Musée Géologique Cantonal de Lausanne 59'583, the left front portion of a skull and the associated, but not articulated to it, lower jaws.

Description

The snout is low and pointed, and curves upward. Only the part in front of the nostrils has remained. On the back top of this part a very tall bony crest is present. It abruptly juts out from the premaxillae, formed like a crested wave, having a concave leading margin. After its rounded tip it gradually curves downwards again towards the skull top; its further shape is unknown because at this point the fossil ends. The crest is flat, running down the midline of the upper jaw and shows a fibrous texture that could be indicative of some covering, such as a horn sheath.

The teeth are robust, and not very elongated. They continue to be present until the very tip of the jaws. The

dentary
: no reliable estimates can be given of the last two totals because the back of the head has been lost.

Classification

The describers assigned Normannognathus to the

monofenestratan, noting that it shares some characters with ctenochasmatoids, yet shares other characters with non-pterodactyloid monofenestratans.[2] In 2018 however, Longrich et al. found Normannognathus to be the sister taxon of Cycnorhamphus within the family Gallodactylidae, which in turn was within the Ctenochasmatoidea. Their cladogram is shown below.[3]

Archaeopterodactyloidea
Germanodactylidae

Germanodactylus cristatus

Germanodactylus rhamphastinus

Euctenochasmatia

Pterodactylus antiquus

Ctenochasmatoidea
Gallodactylidae

Cycnorhamphus suevicus

Normannognathus wellnhoferi

Ctenochasmatidae

See also

References

  1. ^ Buffetaut, E., Lepage, J.-J., and Lepage, G. (1998). A new pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian of the Cap de la Hève (Normandy, France). Geological Magazine 135(5):719–722.
  2. ISSN 1383-4517
    .
  3. PMID 29534059

External links
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