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| - In 1846, James Scott Bowerbank named and described some remains found in a chalk pit at Burham near Maidstone in Kent, as a new species of Pterodactylus: Pterodactylus giganteus. The specific name means "the gigantic one" in Latin.[2] The same pit generated remains of Pterodactylus cuvieri.[3] In 1848 Bowerbank published a histological study of the bone structure of P. giganteus.[4] At the time, the British Association Code of 1843 allowed to change names if they were inappropriate. In 1850, Richard Owen, considering the species not to have been particularly large, renamed it into Pterodactylus conirostris, "the cone-snouted", based on a conical snout, today part of specimen NHMUK PV 39412.[5] However, after insistent objections by Bowerbank, Owen retracted this name in 1851, when he described the finds in more detail.[6] In 1914 Reginald Walter Hooley assigned the species to a new genus Lonchodectes, "the lance biter", as a Lonchodectes giganteus.[7] In 2013, Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner concluded that the type species of Lonchodectes, Lonchodectes compressirostris, was a nomen dubium. Therefore they created a new genus Lonchodraco, combining Greek λόγχη, lonchē, "lance", with Latin draco, "dragon". Pterodactylus giganteus was made the type species of Lonchodraco, resulting in a Lonchodraco giganteus. Two other species previously assigned to Lonchodectes were moved to the new genus, resulting in a Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus and a Lonchodraco(?) microdon. The question mark in the latter name indicates that the authors were uncertain about the correctness of the assignment.[1] Rodrigues and Kellner considered NHMUK PV 39412 to be the lectotype of Lonchodraco giganteus, after a choice by Peter Wellnhofer in 1978.[8] It was found in a layer of the Chalk Formation, dating from the Cenomanian-Turonian. It consists of the front of a snout, the front of a pair of lower jaws, a piece of a scapulocoracoid, the upper parts of a humerus and an ulna, and a part of a wing finger phalanx.[1] In 1869, Harry Govier Seeley named Ptenodactylus machaerorhynchus,[9] at the same time disclaiming the name which makes it invalid by modern standards. In 1870, Seeley had realised that the generic name Ptenodactylus had been preoccupied and renamed the species into Ornithocheirus machaerorhynchus.[10] The specific name means "sabre snout" in Greek. In 1914 Hooley renamed it into Lonchodectes machaerorhynchus.[7] Its holotype, CAMSM B54855, was near Cambridge found in a layer of the Cambridge Greensand dating from the Cenomanian but containing reworked fossils from the Albian. It consists of the rear end of a symphysis of the lower jaws.[1] Also in 1869, Seeley named a Ptenodactylus microdon.[9] In 1870, he renamed it into Ornithocheirus microdon, "small tooth",[10] in 1914 by Hooley made a Lonchodectes microdon.[7] Its holotype, CAMSM B54486, has its provenance in the Cambridge Greensand and consists of the front of a snout. The type specimen of Ornithocheirus oweni Seeley 1870, CAMSM B 54439, was referred to Lonchodraco(?) microdon in the same study that named Lonchodraco, following a conclusion by David Unwin in 2001,[11] and this species would then be a junior synonym.
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