re: Lonchodectids

[David Peters <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>]

Chris Collinson wrote:
What is known of the genus Lonchodectes? A skull fragment, described as
Pterodactylus giganteus in "Bowerbank J.S., 1854, On a new species of
pterodactyl found in the Upper Chalk of Kent (Pterodactylus giganteus),
The
Quarterly Journal of the geological Society. 2, 7-9", looks vaguely like
the
anterior portions of a Germanodactylus skull. Given the size and age
might
Dsungaripterid affinities be inferred? Or is it perhaps related to
Istiodactylus with Ornithocheirid affinities, as it has been suggested
(the
Ornithocheirid affinities) in the past with its synonymy with
Ornithocheirus
itself, which it is, of course, not.

Cheers,
Christopher Collinson



Your post to the DML prompted a tracing and reconstruction which I
attach in a separate email. If some of the premaxillary teeth have been
dislodged, as it would appear, then a reconstruction does seem to be
close to both Istiodactylus and SMNK 1136 PAL. What do you think? Let's
compare notes.

David Peters
St. Louis