Iberodactylus
Iberodactylus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaurs belonging to the clade Anhangueria, that during the Early Cretaceous lived in the area of present Spain. The type species is Iberodactylus andreui.
In the late 1980s, amateur paleontologist Javier Andreu discovered a pterosaur skull at the Los Quiñones site, 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) west of Obón in Aragón. At the time it represented the most complete discovery of pterosaur fossil material in Spain apart from the remains of Prejanopterus. In 2014, the find was reported in the scientific literature by José Antonio Ulloa-Rivas and identified as a member of the Ornithocheiroidea.[1]
In 2019, the type species, Iberodactylus andreui, was named and described by Borja Holgado, Rodrigo Vargas Pêgas, José Ignacio Canudo, Josep Fortuny, Taissa Rodrigues, Julio Company and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner. The generic name combines a reference to Iberia with a Greek δάκτυλος, daktylos, meaning "finger", a common suffix in the names of pterosaurs, since the naming of Pterodactylus. The specific name honors Andreu as discoverer. Because the name was published in an electronic publication, its validity requires Life Science Identifiers. These are 0174E98C-416B-4C49-AF63-2B42AF1E9EAB for the genus and 37FAC334-082A-4185-970E-7E7E13D5670C for the species.[2]
The holotype, MPZ-2014/1, was found in a chalkstone layer of the Blesa Formation dating from the Barremian. It consists of a partial front snout with crest, containing a number of broken teeth and empty tooth sockets. The fossil is part of the collection of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad de Zaragoza.[2]
The wingspan of Iberodactylus was estimated in 2019 by extrapolating the proportions of the related genus Hamipterus of which skull-wing ratios are known. The extrapolations indicated a wingspan that measured between 375 and 404 centimeters (12.30 and 13.25 ft). From this it was concluded that the paired wings were about 4 meters (13 ft) wide. This would make Iberodactylus the largest pterosaur found in the Iberian peninsula up to 2019.[2]
The describing authors indicated two distinguishing traits. They are autapomorphies, unique derived characters. The tip of the premaxilla is relatively tall. The crest on the premaxilla has a front edge curving to the front under an angle of about 80 degrees.[2]
