Genus of anhanguerid pterosaur from the Cretaceous period
Nicorhynchus (meaning "knucker snout", in reference to its likely ecology) is a genus of anhanguerid pterosaur from the Cretaceous period. It contains two species, the type species, N. capito, from the Cambridge Greensand of England, and N. fluviferox from the Kem Kem Group of Morocco. These species were previously assigned to "Coloborhynchus".
History.
The genus "Coloborhynchus" has had a convoluted history, with many species having been assigned to the genus. In 2013, Rodrigues and Kellner considered "Coloborhynchus" to be monotypic, containing only "C. clavirostris", and placed most other species in other genera, or declared them "nomina dubia". One of these species was "Coloborhynchus capito", which was originally named by Harry Seeley in 1870 as a species of "Ornithocheirus". Its holotype is CAMSM B 54625, a snout. In 2001, this species was moved to "Coloborhynchus" by David Unwin, who also synonymized "Ornithocheirus reedi" (known from a lost specimen) with it. Rodrigues and Kellner recognized that the species was distinct from "Coloborhynchus", but did not give it a new name pending the discovery of more complete material.
In 2018, Jacobs "et al." named a new species of "Coloborhynchus", "C. fluviferox" from the Ifezouane Formation of the Kem Kem Group of Morocco based on a partial snout, and also tentatively referred another specimen from the same locality to a different, unnamed species. A 2020 review of a subfamily called Coloborhynchinae by Borja Holgado and Rodrigo Pêgas moved both "C. capito" and "C. fluviferox" to a new genus, "Nicorhynchus", and also associated the unnamed Ifezouane Formation coloborhynchine to "N. fluviferox". The name "Nicorhynchus" is derived from the Old English "nicor" (knucker, a kind of water dragon) and the Ancient Greek "rhynchos" ("snout"), in reference to its likely ecology as a fish-eating, flying reptile found in river and marine deposits.
However, a review of Kem Kem pterosaurs found the traits that distinguish "Nicorhynchus" from "Coloborhynchus" to be subtle enough to justify their synonymy, stating that the material was damaged and fragmentary enough to support this.
Description.
The species "N. capito" represents the second largest known anhanguerid (after a "Tropeognathus" specimen), and indeed the second largest toothed pterosaur known after "Tropeognathus". A referred specimen from the Cambridge Greensand of England described in 2011 consists of a very large upper jaw tip which displays the tooth characteristics that distinguish "N. capito" from other species. The jaw tip is nearly tall and wide, with teeth up to in base diameter. If the proportions of this specimen were consistent with species of "Coloborhynchus", the total skull length could have been up to , leading to an estimated wingspan of .
Classification.
The describers of the genus, Holgado and Pêgas, had recovered "Nicorhynchus" within the subfamily Coloborhynchinae, which in turn was within the family Anhangueridae, sister taxon to "Uktenadactylus". Their cladogram is shown below.
References.
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