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''Lonchodraco'' is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Cretaceous of England. The genus includes species that were previously assigned to other genera.〔 ==Discovery and naming== In 1846, James Scott Bowerbank named and described some remains found in a chalk pit at Burham near Maidstone in Kent, as a new species of ''Pterodactylus'': ''Pterodactylus giganteus''. The specific name means "the gigantic one" in Latin.〔Bowerbank, J.S., 1846, "On a new species of pterodactyl found in the Upper Chalk of Kent (''Pterodactylus giganteus'')", ''Quarterly Journal of Geological Society, London'', 2: 7–9〕 The same pit generated remains of ''Pterodactylus cuvieri''.〔Bowerbank, J.S., 1851, "On the pterodactyles of the Chalk Formation", ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'' 19: 14–20〕 In 1848 Bowerbank published a histological study of the bone structure of ''P. giganteus''.〔Bowerbank, J.S., 1848, "Microscopical observations on the structure of the bones of ''Pterodactylus giganteus'' and other fossil animals", ''Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society'' 4: 2–10〕 At the time, the British Association Code of 1843 allowed to change names if they were inappropriate. In 1850, Richard Owen, considering the species not to have been particularly large, renamed it into ''Pterodactylus conirostris'', "the cone-snouted", based on a conical snout, today part of specimen NHMUK PV 39412.〔Dixon, F., 1850 ''The geology and fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous Formations of Sussex''. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London, 423 pp〕 However, after insistent objections by Bowerbank, Owen retracted this name in 1851, when he described the finds in more detail.〔Owen, R., 1851, ''A monograph on the fossil Reptilia of the Cretaceous formations''. Palaeontographical Society, London, 118 pp〕 In 1914 Reginald Walter Hooley assigned the species to a new genus ''Lonchodectes'', "the lance biter", as a ''Lonchodectes giganteus''.〔Hooley, R.W., 1914, "On the ornithosaurian genus ''Ornithocheirus'', with a review of the specimens from the Cambridge Greensand in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge", ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' 78: 529–557〕 In 2013, Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner concluded that the type species of ''Lonchodectes'', ''Lonchodectes compressirostris'', was a ''nomen dubium''. Therefore they created a new genus ''Lonchodraco'', combining Greek λόγχη, ''lonchē'', "lance", with Latin ''draco'', "dragon". ''Pterodactylus giganteus'' was made the type species of ''Lonchodraco'', resulting in a ''Lonchodraco giganteus''. Two other species previously assigned to ''Lonchodectes'' were moved to the new genus, resulting in a ''Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus'' and a ''Lonchodraco(?) microdon''. The question mark in the latter name indicates that the authors were uncertain about the correctness of the assignment.〔 Rodrigues and Kellner considered NHMUK PV 39412 to be the lectotype of ''Lonchodraco giganteus'', after a choice by Peter Wellnhofer in 1978.〔Wellnhofer, P., 1978, ''Pterosauria. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, Teil 19''. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart and New York, 82 pp〕 It was found in a layer of the Chalk Formation, dating from the Cenomanian-Turonian. It consists of the front of a snout, the front of a pair of lower jaws, a piece of a scapulocoracoid, the upper parts of a humerus and an ulna, and a part of a wing finger phalanx.〔 In 1869, Harry Govier Seeley named ''Ptenodactylus machaerorhynchus'',〔Seeley, H.G., 1869, ''Index to the fossil remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia, from the Secondary System of Strata arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge''. Deighton, Bell and Co., Cambridge, xxiii + 143 pp〕 at the same time disclaiming the name which makes it invalid by modern standards. In 1870, Seeley had realised that the generic name ''Ptenodactylus'' had been preoccupied and renamed the species into ''Ornithocheirus machaerorhynchus''.〔Seeley, H.G., 1870, ''The Ornithosauria: an elementary study of the bones of pterodactyls, made from fossil remains found in the Cambridge Upper Greensand, and arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge''. Deighton, Bell, and Co., Cambridge, xii + 135 pp〕 The specific name means "sabre snout" in Greek. In 1914 Hooley renamed it into ''Lonchodectes machae()orhynchus''.〔 Its holotype, CAMSM B54855, was near Cambridge found in a layer of the Cambridge Greensand dating from the Cenomanian but containing reworked fossils from the Albian. It consists of the rear end of a symphysis of the lower jaws.〔 Also in 1869, Seeley named a ''Ptenodactylus microdon''.〔 In 1870, he renamed it into ''Ornithocheirus microdon'', "small tooth",〔 in 1914 by Hooley made a ''Lonchodectes microdon''.〔 Its holotype, CAMSM B54486, has its provenance in the Cambridge Greensand and consists of the front of a snout. The type specimen of ''Ornithocheirus oweni'' Seeley 1870, CAMSM B 54439, was referred to ''Lonchodraco(?) microdon'' in the same study that named ''Lonchodraco'', following a conclusion by David Unwin in 2001,〔Unwin, D.M., 2001, "An overview of the pterosaur assemblage from the Cambridge Greensand (Cretaceous) of Eastern England", ''Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe'' 4: 189–221〕 and this species would then be a junior synonym. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lonchodraco」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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