Rexarthuria is an extinct genus of azhdarchoid pterosaur known from parts of a single humerus (upper arm bone) found in the early Cretaceous (Valanginian age) of the upper Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation in England. The genus contains a single species, Rexarthuria cliftii, originally placed in the genus Palaeornis, which is preoccupied by a bird.
| Rexarthuria Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Proximal end of the left holotype humerus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Clade: | †Azhdarchoidea |
| Clade: | †Tapejaromorpha |
| Genus: | †Rexarthuria Thomas & McDavid, 2026 |
| Species: | †R. cliftii |
| Binomial name | |
| †Rexarthuria cliftii (Mantell, 1844) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Discovery and naming
edit
"Palaeornis" cliftii was one of the earliest pterosaur discoveries in England and has a long and complicated nomenclatural history.[1] It was originally identified as a prehistoric bird by Gideon Mantell (1837, 1844), but was recognized as a pterosaur by Christoph Gottfried Andreas Giebel (1847) and Richard Owen (1846, 1859), who named it Pterodactylus ornis and P. silvestris respectively.[2][3][4] Richard Lydekker (1888) and Reginald Walter Hooley (1914) tentatively referred it to Ornithocheirus, although the holotype NHM UK 2353/2353a does not overlap with the holotype of the Ornithocheirus type species.[5][6] Peter Wellnhofer (1978) referred Palaeornis clifti to Ornithocheiridae incertae sedis.[7]
Mark P. Witton et al. (2009) re-examined the type specimen and realized that "P." clifti is not an ornithocheirid, referring it to Lonchodectidae based on similarities to humeri assigned to Lonchodectes by Hooley (1914).[1] Averianov (2012, 2014) referred the taxon to Azhdarchoidea indeterminate in his re-assessment of Ornithostoma.[8][9] In 2025, Thomas and McDavid recovered it as a sister taxon of Tapejaridae.[10]
The name Palaeornis had previously been used for a genus of parakeet (now considered a synonym of Psittacula) by Vigors in 1825.[11] In 1848, Mantell used the name "Palæornithis" to refer to supposed bird bones from the Wealden Group.[12] In 2009, Mark Witton and colleagues considered "Palæornithis" as a possible replacement name for "P." cliftii.[1] In 2026, Thomas and McDavid redescribed the holotype of "P." cliftii and proposed Rexarthuria (lit. 'King Arthur') as a replacement genus name. They stated that "Palæornithis" was never explicitly mentioned as an intended replacement name or unambiguously based on the same specimen, so it cannot be treated available in accordance with the ICZN article 12.1.[13] The specific name honours William Clift, the curator of the Hunterian Museum.[1]
References
edit- 1 2 3 4 Witton, Mark P.; Martill, David M.; Green, Michael (2009). "On pterodactyloid diversity in the British Wealden (Lower Cretaceous) and a reappraisal of "Palaeornis" cliftii Mantell, 1844". Cretaceous Research. 30 (3): 676–686. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2008.12.004.
- ↑ Giebel, C.G. (1847). Die Vogel und Amphibien der Vorwelt. Fauna der Vorwelt. Vol. 2. Leipzig.
- ↑ Owen, R. (February 1846). "On the supposed Fossil Bones of Birds from the Wealden". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London. 2: 96–102. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1846.002.01-02.30.
- ↑ Owen, R. (1859). Monograph on the fossil Reptilia of the Cretaceous formations. Supplement no. I. London: Palaeontographical Society. p. 19.
- ↑ Lydekker, Richard (1888). Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History), Part I. The Orders Ornithosauria. Crocodilia, Dinosauria, Squamata. Rhynchocephalia and Protorosauria. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). p. 309.
- ↑ Hooley, Reginald Walter (1914). "On the ornithosaurian genus Ornithocheirus, with a review of the specimens from the Cambridge Greensand in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 13 (78): 529–557. doi:10.1080/00222931408693521.
- ↑ Wellnhofer, P. (1978). Pterosauria. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, Teil 19. Stuttgart and New York: Gustav Fischer Verlag. p. 82.
- ↑ Averianov, AO (2012). "Ornithostoma sedgwicki – valid taxon of azhdarchoid pterosaurs" (PDF). Proceedings of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 316: 40–49.
- ↑ Averianov, Alexander (2014). "Review of taxonomy, geographic distribution, and paleoenvironments of Azhdarchidae (Pterosauria)". ZooKeys (432): 1–107. doi:10.3897/zookeys.432.7913. PMC 4141157. PMID 25152671.
- ↑ Thomas, Emily R.; McDavid, Skye N. (2025-12-31). "Enter the dragons: the phylogeny of Azhdarchoidea (Pterosauria: Pterodactyloidea) and the evolution of giant size in pterosaurs". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 23 (1) 2569368. doi:10.1080/14772019.2025.2569368. ISSN 1477-2019.
- ↑ Vigors, N.A. (1825). "Sketches in ornithology; or observations on the leading affinities of some of the more extensive groups of birds". Zoological Journal. 2: 37–69.
- ↑ Mantell, G.A. (14 June 1848). "A brief notice of organic remains recently discovered in the Wealden Formation". The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London. 5: 37–43. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1849.005.01-02.14.
- ↑ Thomas, Emily M.R.; McDavid, Skye N. (2026-05-26). "The earliest European Azhdarchoid: reappraisal of "Palaeornis" cliftii Mantell, 1844 from the Wealden of Cuckfield, U.K.". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. doi:10.1080/02724634.2026.2664783. ISSN 0272-4634. Cite error: Unknown parameter "name"t&m2026"" in
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