Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T04:36:31.139Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Stonesfield Slate (Bathonian, Middle Jurassic) of Oxfordshire, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2012

ERIC BUFFETAUT*
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8538, Laboratoire de Géologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
PAUL JEFFERY
Affiliation:
Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW, UK
*
Author for correspondence: [email protected]

Abstract

The anterior end of a lower jaw bearing long slender teeth, from the Bathonian Stonesfield Slate of Oxfordshire, was hitherto referred to the crocodilian Teleosaurus. It is reinterpreted as belonging to a ctenochasmatid pterosaur reminiscent of Gnathosaurus. It is the earliest known representative of the Ctenochasmatidae, and one of the earliest known pterodactyloids. The diversity of pterosaurs from the Stonesfield Slate is higher than previously recognized, comprising at least three taxa.

Type
Rapid Communication
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aston, M. A. 1974. Stonesfield Slate. Oxford: Oxfordshire County Council, Department of Museum Services, Publication No. 5, 84 pp.Google Scholar
Barrett, P. M., Butler, R. J., Edwards, N. P. & Milner, A. R. 2008. Pterosaur distribution in time and space: an atlas. Zitteliana B28, 61107.Google Scholar
Bennett, S. C. 2007. A review of the pterosaur Ctenochasma: taxonomy and ontogeny. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 245, 2331.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. & Spencer, P. S. 1995. Fossil Reptiles of Great Britain. London: Chapman & Hall, 386 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boneham, B. W. F. & Wyatt, R. J. 1993. The stratigraphical position of the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Stonesfield Slate of Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 104, 123–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckland, W. 1829. On the discovery of a new species of Pterodactyle in the Lias at Lyme Regis. Transactions of the Geological Society of London 3, 217–22.Google Scholar
Eudes-Deslongchamps, E. 1866. Sur la découverte d'une mâchoire inférieure entière de Teleosaurus megistorhynchus recueillie à Allemagne. Bulletin de la Société Linnéenne de Normandie 10, 80–5.Google Scholar
Eudes-Deslongchamps, E. 1870. Note sur les reptiles fossiles appartenant à la famille des téléosauriens, dont les débris ont été recueillis dans les assises jurassiques de la Normandie. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 27, 299351.Google Scholar
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, E. 1825. Recherches sur l'organisation des gavials. Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle 12, 97155.Google Scholar
Howse, S. C. B. & Milner, A. R. 1995. The pterodactyloids from the Purbeck Limestone Formation of Dorset. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, London (Geology) 51, 7388.Google Scholar
Huxley, T. H. 1859. On Rhamphorhynchus Bucklandi, a pterosaurian from the Stonesfield Slate. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 15, 658–70.Google Scholar
Jouve, S. 2009. The skull of Teleosaurus cadomensis (Crocodylomorpha: Thalattosuchia) and phylogenetic analysis of Thalattosuchia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29, 88102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaup, J. J. 1834. Versuch einer Eintheilung der Säugethiere in 6 Stämme und der Amphibien in 6 Ordnungen. Isis 3, 311–15.Google Scholar
Kuhn, O. 1936. Crocodilia. Fossilium Catalogus I: Animalia 75, 1144.Google Scholar
Lamouroux, J. V. F. 1820. Sur le crocodilien fossile trouvé dans les carrières du bourg d'Allemagne, à un quart de lieue de Caen. Annales Générales des Sciences Physiques 3, 160–4.Google Scholar
, J., Unwin, D. M., Jin, X., Liu, Y. & Ji, Q. 2010. Evidence for modular evolution in a long-tailed pterosaur with a pterodactyloid skull. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 277 383–9.Google Scholar
Lydekker, R. 1888. Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part I. London: British Museum (Natural History), 309 pp.Google Scholar
Martill, D. M., Frey, E., Bell, C. M. & Chong Diaz, G. 2006. Ctenochasmatid pterosaurs from Early Cretaceous deposits in Chile. Cretaceous Research 27, 603–10.Google Scholar
Meyer, H. von. 1832. Palaeologica zur Geschichte der Erde und ihrer Geschöpfe. Frankfurt am Main: Schmerber, 560 pp.Google Scholar
Meyer, H. von. 1834. Gnathosaurus subulatus, ein Saurus aus dem lithographischen Schiefer von Solenhofen. Museum Senckenbergianum 1, 37.Google Scholar
Münster, G. zu. 1832. Bemerkungen über eine neue Art Pterodactylus von Solenhofen. Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Petrefaktenkunde 3, 412–16.Google Scholar
Nopcsa, F. 1928. The genera of reptiles. Palaeobiologica 1, 163–88.Google Scholar
Owen, R. 1874. Monograph on the order Pterosauria. Palaeontographical Society Monographs 1873, 114.Google Scholar
Phillips, J. 1871. Geology of Oxford and the Valley of the Thames. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 523 pp.Google Scholar
Phizackerley, P. H. 1951. A revision of the Teleosauridae in the Oxford University Museum and the British Museum (Natural History). Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4, 1169–92.Google Scholar
Plieninger, F. 1901. Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Flugsaurier. Palaeontographica 48, 6590.Google Scholar
Powell, P. 2005. The Geology of Oxfordshire. Wimborne: The Dovecote Press, 108 pp.Google Scholar
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. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell & Co., 143 pp.Google Scholar
Seeley, H. G. 1880. On Rhamphocephalus prestwichi, Seeley, an ornithosaurian from the Stonesfield Slate of Kineton. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 36, 2730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeley, H. G. 1901. Dragons of the Air. London: Methuen & Co., 239 pp.Google Scholar
Steel, R. 1973. Crocodylia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie 16, 1116.Google Scholar
Steel, L. 2010. The pterosaur collection at the Natural History Museum, London, UK: history, overview, recent curatorial developments and exciting new finds. Acta Geoscientica Sinica 31, Suppl. 1, 5961.Google Scholar
Unwin, D. M. 1996. The fossil record of Middle Jurassic pterosaurs. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 60, 291304.Google Scholar
Wang, X., Kellner, A. W. A., Jiang, S. & Meng, X. 2009. An unusual long-tailed pterosaur with elongated neck from western Liaoning of China. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 81, 793812.Google Scholar
Wellnhofer, P. 1970. Die Pterodactyloidea (Pterosauria) der Oberjura-Plattenkalke Süddeutschlands. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abhandlungen 141, 1133.Google Scholar
Wellnhofer, P. 1991. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs. London: Salamander Books, 192 pp.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. S. & Sherborn, C. D. 1890. A Catalogue of British Fossil Vertebrata. London: Dulau & Co., 396 pp.Google Scholar