Original paper
The morphology and taxonomy of the pterosaur Cycnorhamphus
Bennett, S. Christopher
Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen Band 267 Heft 1 (2013), p. 23 - 41
published: Jan 1, 2013
DOI: 10.1127/0077-7749/2012/0295
ArtNo. ESP155026701003, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
The holotype specimens of Cycnorhamphus suevicus (Quenstedt, 1855), one of the rarest pterosaur species known from the Upper Jurassic Solnhofen and Nusplingen limestones of southern Germany, and C. canjuersensis (Fabre, 1974), known from a single specimen from roughly contemporary deposits of the Petit Plan de Canjuers, France, are redescribed and their skulls reinterpreted in light on new shape information from a complete isolated skull nicknamed the “Painten Pelican. The skulls are quite similar in shape, the holes in the C. canjuersensis mandible that had been interpreted as alveoli are merely artifacts, and differences between the two holotypes are the result of differences in ontogenetic age and quality of preservation. Based on reinterpretation of the two holotypes, C. canjuersensis does not exhibit any features that distinguish it from C. suevicus and so must be considered a junior synonym.
Keywords
pterosaur • gallodactylus • solnhofen • nusplingen • canjuers • upper jurassic