A new ?chaoyangopterid (Pterosauria: Pterodactyloidea) from the Cretaceous Kem Kem beds of southern Morocco

Evidence for tactile foraging in pterosaurs: a sensitive tip to the beak of Lonchodraco giganteus (Pterosauria, Lonchodectidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of southern England

“…), but other tapejarids have only a few foramina as in Afrotapejara zouhrii (Martill et al, 2020a), a single foramen as in a large Tapejara wellnhoferi (Wellnhofer and Kellner, 1991) or appear to lack such features altogether as in a juvenile Tapejara wellnhoferi (Eck et al, 2011). In the possible chaoyangopterid Apatorhamphus gyrostega elongate oval and slitlike foramina are present on the lateral margins of the rostrum and the occlusal surface (McPhee et al, 2020). The mandible of the enigmatic azhdarchid Bakonydraco galaczi has two rows of ten elongate oval foramina on the occlusal surface, one row either side of the midline (Ősi et al, 2005, fig. 2).…”

Edentulous pterosaurs from the Cambridge Greensand (Cretaceous) of eastern England with a review of Ornithostoma Seeley, 1871

“…The restoration was achieved simply by projecting anteriorly the ventral and dorsal borders. The restoration permitted the determination of the lateral and dorsal angles (sensu McPhee et al, 2020) as ~11° and ~5° respectively (Fig. 7).…”

“…The lack of any morphological clues such as the anterior margin of the nasoantorbital fenestra or the divergence of the mandibular rami makes identification as an upper or lower jaw challenging. This is a recurring problem, and applicable (for example) to all of the edentulous pterosaurs described from the Kem Kem Group of Morocco (Ibrahim et al, 2010, Martill et al, 2020a, McPhee et al, 2020.…”

“…Although very few foramina are preserved on the occlusal surface of BMB 019582, several are visible on CAMSM B40091, showing a somewhat more random distribution than those of Apatorhamphus. However, foramina distribution may vary within a taxon(McPhee et al, 2020). Although the cross-section outline of Apatorhamphus superficially looks similar to that of Ornithostoma, it differs in that Apatorhamphus has a more inverted 'U' shaped outline anteriorly, becoming somewhat 'tear drop' shaped posteriorly.…”

“…Although the cross-sectional outlines superficially look similar (a rounded triangle), the Pteranodon cross section is higher exhibiting an isosceles triangle compared to the near equilateral triangle of Ornithostoma. The presence of elongate slit-like foramina on Ornithostoma, which are seemingly absent on pteranodontids excludes Ornithostoma from Pteranodontidae and suggests an azhdarchoid affinity where such foramina are widespread(McPhee et al, 2020; Martill et al, 2020a, b). An affinity with Tapejaridae can be excluded due to the lack of a prominent midline crest, which occurs on both the rostrum and mandible(Unwin, 2001).…”