Pteranodon
While the first "Pteranodon" wing bones were collected by Marsh and Cope in the early 1870s, the first "Pteranodon" skull was found on May 2, 1876, along the Smoky Hill River in Wallace County (now Logan County), Kansas, USA, by Samuel Wendell Williston, a fossil collector working for Marsh. A second, smaller skull soon was discovered as well. These skulls showed that the North American pterosaurs were different from any European species, in that they lacked teeth and had bony crests on their skulls. Marsh recognized this major difference, describing the specimens as "distinguished from all previously known genera of the order Pterosauria by the entire absence of teeth." Marsh recognized that this characteristic warranted a new genus, and he coined the name "Pteranodon" ("wing without tooth") in 1876. Marsh reclassified all the previously named North American species from "Pterodactylus" to "Pteranodon". He considered the smaller skull to belong to "Pteranodon occidentalis", based on its size. Marsh classified the larger skull, YPM 1117, in the new species "Pteranodon longiceps", which he thought to be a medium-sized species in between the small "P. occidentalis" and the large "P. ingens". Marsh also named several additional species: Pteranodon comptus and "Pteranodon nanus" were named for fragmentary skeletons of small individuals, while "Pteranodon gracilis" was based on a wing bone that he mistook for a pelvic bone. He soon realized his mistake, and re-classified that specimen again into a separate genus, which he named "Nyctosaurus". "P, nanus" was also later recognized as a "Nyctosaurus" specimen.
Temnodontosaurus
The species "Temnodontosaurus platyodon" was named by William Conybeare in 1822 from the specimen BMNH 2003 from the Lyme Regis. This specimen is located at the British Museum of Natural History. "T. platyodon" is from the Upper Hettangian-Lower Sinemurian. It is the type species for "Temnodontosaurus"." T. platyodon" specimens have been found in England, Germany and Belgium. This includes the Lyme Regis in Dorset England, Herlikofen in Germany and Arlon in Belgium. Only one complete skeleton of "T. platyodon" is known of (BMNH 2003) and there is also a well preserved skull (BMNH R1158).
In 1995, Christopher McGowan explained that the previously named "T. risor" specimens are really juvenile versions of "T. platyodon". The specimen he used to back up his argument was one collected by David Sole in 1987 from Black Ven (East of Lyme Regis). The previously known "T. risor" specimens (three skulls) were seen previously as different to the "T. platyodon" species because they had larger orbits, smaller maxillae and curved snouts. However, McGowan described them as juveniles because of the small size of the forefin relative to the skull. The "T. risor" skulls are thought to be juveniles because the skull is relatively long compared to the postcranial skeleton.