Palaeornis cliftii

"Palaeornis" cliftii
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 135 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Pterosauria
Suborder: Pterodactyloidea
Family: Lonchodectidae
Genus: Palaeornis
Mantell, 1844 (preoccupied)
Species:  ". cliftii
Binomial name
"Palaeornis" cliftii
Mantell, 1844
Synonyms

Pterodactylus cliftii (Mantell, 1844)
Ornithocheirus clifti (Mantell, 1844)
Pterodactylus silvestris Owen, 1845
Pterodactylus ornis Owen, 1861

"Palaeornis" cliftii is a pterosaur species known from parts of a single humerus (upper arm bone) found in early Cretaceous period rocks of the upper Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation, England. "P." cliftii represents one of the earliest pterosaur discoveries in England, and has a long and complicated history of controversy and nomenclature.[1]

The name Palaeornis had previously been used for a genus of parakeet (now considered a synonym of Psittacula) by Vigors in 1825.[2] Mantell was apparently aware of this, and in some later publications used to name "Palaeornithis" (Mantell, 1848) as a replacement.[1][3]

References

  1. 1 2 Witton, M.P., Martill, D.M., and Green, M. (2009). "On pterodactyloid diversity in the British Wealden (Lower Cretaceous) and a reappraisal of “Palaeornis” cliftii Mantell, 1844." Cretaceous Research, 30: 676–686.
  2. 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.
  3. Mantell, G.A. (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.


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