Lonchodraco
Lonchodraco was a flying reptile that lived in the time of dinosaurs. It had a long, pointed snout like a spear and a small crest under its chin. It soared over the seas of ancient England, hunting for fish.1
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Fun facts
Lonchodraco was first called Pterodactylus giganteus, meaning 'the gigantic one', even though it was not that big.1
Its name means 'lance dragon' because its snout was shaped like a lance or spear.1
Lonchodraco had a small blade-like crest under the front of its lower jaw.1
Its teeth were very close together, with about six tooth sockets every three centimetres along the jaw.1
Fossils of Lonchodraco were found in chalk pits near Maidstone, Kent, and in the Cambridge Greensand.1
Lonchodraco lived between about 112 and 90 million years ago, during the Early and Late Cretaceous.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Lonchodraco
- Named by
- Rodrigues and Kellner 20133
- Group
- Flying reptiles
- Family / clade
- Lonchodraconidae3
- Classification
- Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
- Age of the rocks
- 137 to 90 million years (Valanginian / Turonian)3
- Rock formations
- Tunbridge Wells Sand3
- Countries
- United Kingdom3
- Fossil records
- 2 in the Paleobiology Database3
- Discovery
- James Scott Bowerbank named the first fossils in 1846 as Pterodactylus giganteus. In 2013, Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Kellner gave it the new genus name Lonchodraco.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure if all three species assigned to Lonchodraco really belong together. Some researchers think Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus should be in a different genus called Ikrandraco.1
Where the facts come from
- Lonchodraco (en.wikipedia.org)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Lonchodraco in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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