''Targaryendraco'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

pterodactyloid Pterodactyloidea ( ; derived from the Greek words ''πτερόν'' (''pterón'', for usual ''ptéryx'') "wing", and ''δάκτυλος'' (''dáktylos'') "finger") is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs ("wing lizards"), and contai ...

pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

period (

Valanginian In the geologic timescale, the Valanginian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Cretaceous. It spans between 137.05 ± 0.2 Ma and 132.6 ± 0.2 Ma (million years ago). The Valanginian Stage succeeds the Berriasian Stage of the Lower Cretac ...

stage) of Hannover, northern Germany. Fossil remains of ''Targaryendraco'' dated back about 132 million years ago.

Discovery and naming

In July 1984, amateur paleontologist Kurt Wiedenroth discovered a fragmentary pterosaur skeleton in the clay pit of Engelbostel at the southern edge of the city of

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. In 1990, Rupert Wild described the find as a new species of ''

Ornithocheirus ''Ornithocheirus'' (from Ancient Greek "ὄρνις", meaning bird, and "χεῖρ", meaning hand) is a pterosaur genus known from fragmentary fossil remains uncovered from sediments in the United Kingdom and possibly Morocco. Several species ha ...

'': ''Ornithocheirus wiedenrothi''. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honors Wiedenroth as discoverer. Wild considered the skeleton to lie evolutionary between ''Ornithocheirus compressirostris'' (now the holotype of ''

Lonchodectes ''Lonchodectes'' (meaning "lance biter") was a genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from several formations dating to the Turonian (Late Cretaceous) of England, mostly in the area around Kent. The species belonging to it had been assigned to ''Orni ...

'') and ''Ornithocheirus giganteus'' (now the holotype of ''

Lonchodraco ''Lonchodraco'' is a genus of lonchodraconid Pterodactyloidea, pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of southern England. The genus includes species that were previously assigned to other genera. Discovery and naming In 1846, Jame ...

''). ''O. compressirostris'' was at the time seen as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of ''

'', but it was meanwhile shown that the correct type species is ''O. simus''. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, SMNS 56628, was found in rocks of the

Stadthagen Formation The Stadthagen Formation is a geological formation located in Hanover, Germany, dating to the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian). The formation contains fossils of reptiles and fish, suggesting that the formation was once a shallow marine setting.''P ...

dating from the latest

, about 132 million years old. It consists of a partial skeleton with lower jaws. It contains the front and the rear of the symphysis of the lower jaws, a right articular, a rib piece, the distal ends of a left radius and ulna, the proximal and distal end of a left third metacarpal and a piece of a phalanx, probably the first of the left third finger. The fossil is part of the collection of the

State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart The State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (), abbreviated SMNS, is one of the two state of Baden-Württemberg's natural history museums. Together with the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karls ...

. It is the most complete pterosaur specimen from the Cretaceous of Germany. In their study of 2010, Fletcher & Salisbury argued for ''O. wiedenrothi'' to be an

ornithocheirid Anhangueridae (alternatively called Ornithocheiridae, meaning "bird hands") is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. These pterosaurs were among the last to possess teeth. Members that belong to this group lived from the ...

closely related to the then unnamed '' Aussiedraco'' and another pterosaur specimen from the Cretaceous of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. In 2013, Ford reported it to be a species of ''Lonchodectes''.Ford, T.L., 2013. "Will the real ''Lonchodectes'' fly in?", ''Short Communications/International Symposium on Pterosaurs – Rio Ptero 2013'', 65–67. In a study of the same year, Rodrigues & Kellner concluded that it wasn't ''Ornithocheirus'', and was also not part of their newly erected

''Lonchodraco''. In 2019, Abel ''et al.'' argued it to be potential new genus of lonchodectid.Abel, P., Hornung, J.J., Kear, B.P. & Sachs, S. 2019, "Reassessment of the enigmatic pterosaur ‘Ornithocheirus’ ''wiedenrothi'' from the Lower Cretaceous of Northern Germany", ''Journal of Morphology'' 280: 73–74. doi:10.1002/jmor.21003 Later in 2019, Pêgas ''et al.'' assigned ''O. wiedenrothi'' as the type species of ''Targaryendraco''. The generic name, which is formed from combining the name ''Targaryen'' with the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word and literally means 'Targaryen dragon', refers to the fictional

House Targaryen George R. R. Martin's ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' saga features a large cast of characters. The series follows three interwoven plotlines: a dynastic war for control of Westeros by several families; the rising threat of the undead White Walkers ...

(who ride

dragons A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

and use them as

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and genealo ...

) from the popular

epic fantasy High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot. Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', (p. 198), Scarecrow Pres ...

novel series ''

A Song of Ice and Fire ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the first volume, ''A Game of Thrones'', in 1991, and published it in 1996. Martin, who originally envisioned the ser ...

''. The authors chose the name because the now black-colored bones of the fossil resemble the fictional dragons in the novels.Pêgas, R.V., Holgado, B., Leal, M.E.C., (2019). "''Targaryendraco wiedenrothi'' gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids", ''Historical Biology'', 1–15. doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1690482

Description

In 2019, the describing authors abstained from giving a size estimate, in view of the fragmentary nature of the fossil. They estimated the

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

of the most closely related species at . They indicated a single distinguishing trait. It is an

autapomorphy In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a Synapomorphy, derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or Outgroup (cladistics), outgroup taxa, not ...

, a unique derived character. The symphysis of the lower jaws has at the midline of its front an odontoid, or tooth-like, process, formed by a confluence of the side ridges of the occlusal groove, in the top surface of the joint dentaries.

Phylogeny

In 2019, ''Targaryendraco'' was placed within the Lanceodontia in an entirely new

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

called

Targaryendraconia Targaryendraconia is an extinct clade of lanceodontian pterosaurs that lived from the Early to Late Cretaceous period in Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. Classification Below is a cladogram following a topology by Pêgas an ...

, and was more precisely a member of the family Targaryendraconidae. In the latter clade it formed a polytomy with ''Aussiedraco'' and '' Barbosania''. Below is a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

following Pêgas ''et al.'' (2019). In the analysis, they placed ''Targaryendraco'' in the clade Targaryendraconia as the sister taxon of '' Aussiedraco'' and '' Barbosania'', within the more inclusive group

Ornithocheirae Ornithocheiromorpha (from Ancient Greek, meaning "bird hand form") is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Fossil remains of this group date back from the Early Cretaceous, Early to Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period ...

References

{{Portal bar, Paleontology, Germany Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Europe Pteranodontoidea Fossil taxa described in 2019 Pterosaur genera