Lonchodectes

Lonchodectes is a genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from several formations dating to the Turonian of England, mostly in the area around Kent. The species belonging to it had been assigned to Ornithocheirus until David Unwin's work of the 1990s and 2000s. Several potential species are known; most are based on scrappy remains, and have gone through several other generic assignments. The genus is part of the complex taxonomy issues surrounding Early Cretaceous pterosaurs from Brazil and England, such as Amblydectes, Anhanguera, Coloborhynchus, and Ornithocheirus.

Lonchodectes

Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
OrnithocheiroideaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At most 24 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 113.2 Mya and 89.8 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 7 of 9 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 9 occurrencesLate Cretaceous114–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–106 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113.7 Mya89.3 Mya

9 occurrences of Lonchodectes on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

9 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

West Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.20°N, 0.13°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.24°N, 0.19°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.04°N, 0.15°WGault — 51.08°N, 1.17°EMelovatka — 50.88°N, 44.74°E

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The named rock units Lonchodectes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lonchodectes and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Lonchodectes and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

78 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Lonchodectes, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

6 references

Each of the 9 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Lonchodectes

Credit
Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lonchodectes was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itOrnithocheiroidea through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hooley 1914