posted on 2018-01-30, 15:17authored byDavid M. Martill, David M. Unwin, Nizar Ibrahim, Nick Longrich
A new genus and species, Xericeps curvirostris gen. et sp. nov., is erected for a highly distinctive pterosaur mandible from the mid-Cretaceous (?Albian to lower Cenomanian) Kem Kem beds of south east Morocco. The new taxon is referred to Azhdarchoidea based on the absence of teeth, slenderness of its mandible with sulcate occlusal surface, presence on the posterior section of the mandibular symphysis of short paired ridges bounding a central groove, and the presence of elongate foramina on its occlusal and lateral surfaces. A slight dorsal curvature determines it as a distinct genus of azhdarchoid, as does an autapomorphy: the presence of a continuous longitudinal groove on the ventral midline of the mandibular symphysis. The new species brings to three the number of named pterosaurs from the Kem Kem beds and together with an unnamed tapejarid, points to a relatively diverse pterosaur assemblage in these deposits.
Funding
Thanks to the people of south east Morocco who made us feel so welcome in their communities. DMM thanks his undergraduate students Sam Davies, Meg Jacobs, James McPhee and Jack Woodroffe who assisted him on fieldwork. Thanks to Samir Zouhri (Casablanca) who has always been of great help in Morocco over the years. Thanks to Richard Hing (Portsmouth) for assistance with photography and Lü Junchang (Beijing) for sending images of Chinese pterosaurs. For access to specimens in collections thanks are due to Dino Frey (SMNK, Karlsruhe), Peter Wellnhofer and Oliver Rauhut (BSP), Wang Xiaolin and Zhou Zhonghe (IVPP), Zhou Chang-Fu (Paleontological Museum of Liaoning, Shenyang), Zhang Xingliao and Xu Li (Henan Geological Museum, Zhengzhou), Cai Zhengquan and Jin Xingsheng (Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Hangzhou), Alex Kellner (National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), S. Nabana (Iwaki Museum of Coal and Fossils), H. Taru (Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History) the late Wann Langston (Balcones Research Centre, University of Texas, Austin, Texas) Alexander Averianov and the late Lev Nesov (Department of Geology, St Petersburg University) and Lorna Steel (NHMUK, London). We are grateful to Dino Frey and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments on the manuscript and additional observations.
History
Citation
Cretaceous Research, 2018, 84, pp. 1-12
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of Museum Studies
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