Scaphognathus

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Scaphognathus
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Cast of the holotype specimen
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Family: †Rhamphorhynchidae
Subfamily: †
Scaphognathinae
Genus: †Scaphognathus
Wagner, 1861
Type species
†Pterodactylus crassirostris
Goldfuss, 1831
Species
  • †Scaphognathus crassirostris (Goldfuss, 1831)
Synonyms
  • Pachyramphus Fitzinger, 1843 (
    preoccupied
    )
  • Brachytrachelus Giebel, 1850 (preoccupied)
  • Pterodactylus crassirostris Goldfuss 1830
  • Pachyrhamphus
    crassirostris     Fitzinger 1843 preoccupied
  • Ornithocephalus crassirostris Wagner 1851
  • Brachytrachelus crassirostris Giebel 1852 preoccupied
  • Rhamphorhynchus crassirostris Wagner 1858

Scaphognathus was a pterosaur that lived around Germany during the Late Jurassic. It had a wingspan of 0.9 m (3 ft).

Naming

A. Goldfuss' illustration of the type specimen

The first known Scaphognathus specimen was described in 1831 by

Johann Wagner referred the species to Rhamphorhynchus. After recognising the fundamentally different snout shape, Wagner, after previous failed attempts by Leopold Fitzinger and Christoph Gottfried Andreas Giebel, who used preoccupied names, in 1861 named a distinct genus: Scaphognathus, derived from Greek skaphe, "boat" or "tub", and gnathos, "jaw", in reference to the blunt shape of the lower jaws.[3]

In the early twentieth century, the "rhamphorhynchoid" nature of S. crassirostris was recognized after the discovery of the second specimen in Mühlheim, whose long tail was preserved. The second Scaphognathus specimen was more complete than its predecessor, but only half the size (twenty inch wingspan) and with partially ossified bones.[2] These characters indicate that the second specimen was a juvenile.[2]


Description

Restoration

The Scaphognathus is known from three specimens, all of which originated in the Kimmeridgian-age[4] Solnhofen Limestone.[2] Physically it was very similar to Rhamphorhynchus, albeit with notable cranial differences.[2]

For one, Scaphognathus had a proportionately shorter skull (4.5 in) with a blunter tip and a larger antorbital fenestra.[2] Its teeth oriented vertically rather than horizontally. The traditional count of them held that eighteen teeth were in the upper jaws and ten in the lower.[2] S. Christopher Bennett, studying a new third specimen, SMNS 59395, in 2004 determined there were only sixteen teeth in the upper jaws, the higher previous number having been caused by incorrectly adding replacement teeth.[5]

Scaphognathus showing an hypothetical raptorial behavior

Comparisons between the

nocturnal, such as Ctenochasma and Rhamphorhynchus.[6]

Classification

1905 restoration of Scaphognathus (right) and other pterosaurs

The cladogram (family tree) of rhamphorhynchids below is the result of a large

phylogenetic analysis published by Andres & Myers in 2013.[7]

 
Breviquartossa
 
 Rhamphorhynchidae 

Scaphognathus crassirostris

 
Rhamphorhynchinae
 

Dorygnathus banthensis

Cacibupteryx caribensis

Nesodactylus hesperius

Rhamphorhynchus muensteri

Harpactognathus gentryii

Angustinaripterus longicephalus

Sericipterus wucaiwanensis

See also

References

  1. ^ Goldfuss G. A. (1830). "Pterodactylus crassirostris". Isis von Oken, Jena pp. 552–553
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Scaphognathus." In: Cranfield, Ingrid (ed.). The Illustrated Directory of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures. London: Salamander Books, Ltd. Pp. 308–309.
  3. ^ Wagner, J.A. (1861). "Uebersicht über die fossilen Reptilien des lithographischen Schiefers in Bayern nach ihren Gattungen und Arten". Sitzungsberichte der königlich bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München, 1861 Theil 1: 497–535.
  4. ISBN 0-520-24209-2
    .
  5. ^ Bennett, S. C. (2004). "New information on the pterosaur Scaphognathus crassirostris and the pterosaurian cervical series", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 24(Supplement to #3):38A
  6. PMID 21493820
    .
  7. doi:10.1017/S1755691013000303
    .

Literature

External links
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