''Wightia'' 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 ...

tapejarid Tapejaridae (from a Tupi word meaning 'the lord of the ways') is a family of azhdarchoid pterosaurs from the Cretaceous period. Members are currently known from Brazil, England, Hungary, Morocco, Spain, the United States, and China. The most p ...

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 ...

recovered from the

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker * Lower (surname) * Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) * Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also * Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

(

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 125.77 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma (Historically, this stage was placed at 129.4 million to approximately 125 million years ago) It is a ...

) aged

Wessex Formation The Wessex Formation is a fossil-rich England, English geological formation that dates from the Berriasian to Barremian Stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Early Cretaceous. It forms part of the Wealden Group and underlies the younger Vectis Form ...

of the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

of England, from which it gets its name. The only species within this genus is ''W. declivirostris''.

Discovery and naming

Amateur paleontologist John Winch discovered a pterosaur snout at the east coast of Wight, near the cliff of Yaverland Point at Sandown, in a fossil plant debris layer. In 2020, 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 ...

''Wightia declivirostris'' was named and described by David Michael Martill, Mick Green, Roy Smith, Megan Jacobs and John Winch. The generic name ''Wightia'' comes from the Isle of Wight in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

where the fossil was found. 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 ...

means "slanting beak" in Latin, from ''declivis'', "inclining downwards", and ''rostrum'', "snout", referring to the snout kink typical of tapejarids. 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 ...

, IWCSM. 2020. 401, was found in a layer of the Wessex Formation dating from the

. It consists of partial paired praemaxillae, lacking the snout tip and broken off at the rear before the front edge of the ''fenestra nasoantorbitalis''. The fossil is lightly eroded, transversely compressed and deformed. It is part of the collection of the Museum of Isle of Wight Geology (Dinosaur Isle Visitor Centre).

Description

The species is solely known from the

premaxilla The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammals h ...

. Martill e.a. indicated some distinguishing traits. The occlusal surface (palate) of the snout is pierced by only a limited number of slit-like foramina combined with a single row of foramina parallel to and close to the jaw edge and positioned far apart, at about one opening per centimetre. The snout is appending under an angle of 12°.

Phylogeny

The morphology of the occlusal margin suggests closer affinities of ''Wightia'' with '' Sinopterus'' than with the South American tapejarids. The describers place the two, including '' Eopteranodon'' and '' Huaxiapterus'', in a newly named subfamily of tapejarids called Sinopterinae.

Palaeoecology

''Wightia'' inhabited the area presented by southern England's Wessex Formation, at the time a floodplain. The formation contains an abundance of insects like '' Dungeyella''. Herbivores ranged from small mammals like '' Eobaatar'', '' Loxaulax'' and ''

Yaverlestes ''Yaverlestes gassoni'' is an extinct mammal which dates to the early Cretaceous period, 130 million years ago. It is part of the Wessex Formation from the Isle of Wight, England. The holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single ...

'' to ornithopods, themselves ranging from the small ''

Hypsilophodon ''Hypsilophodon'' (; meaning "high-crested tooth") is a neornithischian dinosaur genus from the Early Cretaceous period of England. It has traditionally been considered an early member of the group Ornithopoda, but recent research has put this ...

'' to large

iguanodonts Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (). They represent one of the most successful groups of herbivorous dinosaurs during the Cretaceous. The most primitive members of the group were bipedal and relatively sm ...

like ''

Mantellisaurus ''Mantellisaurus'' is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur that lived in the Barremian and early Aptian ages of the Early Cretaceous Period of Europe. Its remains are known from Belgium (Bernissart), England, Spain and Germany. The type species, ty ...

''. The largest predators of the area and time were the spinosaurid ''

Baryonyx ''Baryonyx'' () is a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived in the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous period, about 130–125 million years ago. The first skeleton was discovered in 1983 in the Smokejack Clay Pit, of Surrey, England, in ...

'' and the allosauroid ''

Neovenator ''Neovenator'' ( nˈiːə͡ʊvˌɛne͡ɪtə; "new hunter") is a genus of carcharodontosaurian theropod dinosaur. It is known primarily from several skeletons found in the Early Cretaceous (Hauterivian-Barremian) Wessex Formation on the south co ...

'', as well as the basal tyrannosaur ''

Eotyrannus ''Eotyrannus'' (meaning "dawn tyrant") is a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur hailing from the Early Cretaceous Wessex Formation beds, included in Wealden Group, located in the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The re ...

''.

References

{{Portal bar, Paleontology, United Kingdom Tapejaromorphs Fossil taxa described in 2020