Cycnorhamphus
Cycnorhamphus (meaning "swan beak") is a genus of gallodactylid ctenochasmatoid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic period of France and Germany, about 152 million years ago.[1] It is probably synonymous with the genus Gallodactylus.
In 1855, a fossil in a plate of shale from the Kimmeridgian, found near Nusplingen in Württemberg, holotype GPIT "Orig. Quenstedt 1855, Taf. 1" or GPIT 80, was named Pterodactylus Suevicus by Friedrich August Quenstedt.[2][3][4] The specific name refers to the tribal area of Suevia. Quenstedt had earlier mentioned the find in a letter to Professor Heinrich Georg Bronn, which was published in 1854. In it he used the name Pterodactylus Württembergicus.[5] In 1855 and 1858, Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer adopted this older species name[6] but it would be forgotten afterwards. The publication in 1854 was not meant to be a nomenclatural act.[7] According to Peter Wellnhofer, Pterodactylus württembergicus should be considered a nomen oblitum.[8]
In 1858, Johann Andreas Wagner described a second specimen consisting of the wings, a shinbone and a foot. He named it Pterodactylus (Ornithocephalus) eurychirus, "the broad-handed", but later in the same publication used the name Pterodactylus suevicus eurychirus as if it were a subspecies.[9] This is today considered a junior synonym. The specimen was acquired by the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie but was lost in April 1944 during the Munich bombardment.[8]
In 1870, Harry Govier Seeley assigned P. suevicus to a new genus: Cycnorhamphus.[10] The name is derived from Greek κύκνος, kyknos, "swan" and ράμφος, ramphos, "beak", in reference to the snout shape. The type species of this genus is Pterodactylus suevicus, the combinatio nova is Cycnorhamphus suevicus.
In 1878, Oscar Fraas referred a specimen of Pterodactylus longicollum, the later Exemplar Nr 58, to Pterodactylus suevicus.[11] Seeley made this the type specimen of yet another species: Cycnorhamphus Fraasii, in 1891.[12]
In 1907 however, Felix Plieninger rejected the split between Pterodactylus and Cycnorhamphus and denied the validity of C. fraasii.[13] This would be the standard interpretation, shared by most paleontologists, for over sixty years.
