Ikrandraco

{{Short description|Genus of lonchodraconid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous}} {{Automatic taxobox | name = ''Ikrandraco'' | fossil_range = Early Cretaceous, {{fossilrange|120}} | image = Ikrandraco-Paleozoological Museum of China.jpg | image_caption = ''I. avatar'' holotype, Paleozoological Museum of China | display_parents = 3 | taxon = Ikrandraco | authority = Wang ''et al.'', 2020 | type_species = {{extinct}}'''''Ikrandraco avatar''''' | type_species_authority = Wang ''et al.'', 2020 | subdivision_ranks = Other species | subdivision = *{{extinct}}'''''I. machaerorhynchus''''' (Seeley, 1870) | synonyms = {{collapsible list|bullets = true |title={{small|Synonyms of ''I. machaerorhynchus''}} |''Ornithocheirus machaerorhynchus'' Seeley, 1870 |''Lonchodectes machaerorhynchus'' (Seeley, 1870) |''Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus'' (Seeley, 1870) |''Ornithocheirus microdon'' Seeley, 1870 |''Lonchodectes microdon'' (Seeley, 1870) |''Lonchodraco microdon'' (Seeley, 1870) |''Pterodactylus oweni'' Seeley, 1864 |''Ornithocheirus oweni'' (Seeley, 1864) }} }}

'''''Ikrandraco''''' ("Ikran [a flying creature from ''Avatar'' with a crest on the lower jaw] dragon") is a genus of lonchodraconid pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of northeastern China, and the Cambridge Greensand of England. It is notable for its unusual skull, which features a crest on the lower jaw.

==Discovery and naming== [[File:Ikrandraco-IVPP.jpg|left|thumb|Referred specimen of ''I. avatar'' (IVPP 18406), Paleozoological Museum of China]] The type species, ''Ikrandraco avatar'' is based on specimen IVPP V18199, a partial skeleton including the skull and jaws, several neck vertebrae, a partial sternal plate, parts of both wings, and part of a foot. A second specimen, IVPP 18406, has also been assigned to ''Ikrandraco''; it consists of a skull and jaws and the first three neck vertebrae. Both specimens come from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, with an estimated date of 120 million years ago. The type species is '''''I. avatar''''', a second reference to James Cameron’s “Avatar”. It was described in 2014 by Wang Xiaolin and colleagues,<ref name=XWetal14ikran>{{Cite journal|author1=Xiaolin Wang |author2=Taissa Rodrigues |author3=Shunxing Jiang |author4=Xin Cheng |author5=Alexander W. A. Kellner |year=2014 |title=An Early Cretaceous pterosaur with an unusual mandibular crest from China and a potential novel feeding strategy |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=4 |article-number=6329 |doi=10.1038/srep06329 |pmid=25210867|pmc=5385874 |bibcode=2014NatSR...4.6329W }}</ref> but was not properly named according to ICZN rules until 2020.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=Xiaolin|last2=Rodrigues|first2=Taissa|last3=Jiang|first3=Shunxing|last4=Cheng|first4=Xin|last5=Kellner|first5=Alexander W. A.|date=2020-08-11|title=Author Correction: An Early Cretaceous pterosaur with an unusual mandibular crest from China and a potential novel feeding strategy|journal=Scientific Reports|volume=10|issue=1|page=13565|doi=10.1038/s41598-020-70506-z|issn=2045-2322|pmc=7421578|pmid=32782315|bibcode=2020NatSR..1013565W}}</ref>

In 1869, British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley assigned remains he found to a new species of pterosaur called ''Ptenodactylus machaerorhynchus'',<ref name="Seeley1869">{{Cite journal|last=Seeley|first=Harry Govier|date=1869|title=''Index to the fossil remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia, from the Secondary System of Strata, arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge''|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/59487|journal=Annals and Magazine of Natural History|language=en|volume=5|issue=27|pages=225–226|doi=10.1080/00222937008696143|issn=0374-5481}}</ref><ref name="Rodrigues & Kellner 2013"/> at the same time disclaiming the name which makes it invalid by modern standards. In 1870, Seeley had realized that the generic name ''Ptenodactylus'' had been preoccupied and renamed the species into ''Ornithocheirus machaerorhynchus''.<ref name="Seeley1870">{{cite journal|author=Seeley, H.G.|year=1870|title=The Ornithosauria: an Elementary Study of the Bones of Pterodactyles|journal=Cambridge|pages=112–128|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0M8yAQAAMAAJ}}</ref> The specific name means "sabre snout" in Greek. In 1914, Hooley renamed it into ''Lonchodectes machaerorhynchus''.<ref name="Hooley1914">{{Cite journal|last=Hooley|first=Reginald Walter|date=1914|title=On the Ornithosaurian genus ''Ornithocheirus'', with a review of the specimens from the Cambridge Greensand in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2207691|journal=Annals and Magazine of Natural History|language=en|volume=13|issue=78|pages=529–557|doi=10.1080/00222931408693521|issn=0374-5481}}</ref> Its holotype, CAMSM B54855, was found near Cambridge, 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.<ref name="Rodrigues & Kellner 2013">{{Cite journal | last1 = Rodrigues | first1 = T. | last2 = Kellner | first2 = A. | doi = 10.3897/zookeys.308.5559 | title = Taxonomic review of the ''Ornithocheirus'' complex (Pterosauria) from the Cretaceous of England | journal = ZooKeys | pages = 1–112 | year = 2013 | issue = 308 | pmid = 23794925| pmc = 3689139| doi-access = free | bibcode = 2013ZooK..308....1R }}</ref>

Also in 1869, Seeley informally named "Ptenodactylus microdon".<ref name="Seeley1869"/> In 1870, he formally named it ''Ornithocheirus microdon'', "small tooth",<ref name="Seeley1870"/> Hooley (1914) transferred this species to ''Lonchodectes'' to form the new combination ''Lonchodectes microdon''.<ref name="Hooley1914"/> Its holotype, CAMSM B54486, has its provenance in the Cambridge Greensand and consists of the front of a snout. The type specimen of the species ''Ornithocheirus oweni'', CAMSM B 54439, initially described by Seeley in 1864 as ''Pterodactylus oweni'', was synonymized with ''microdon'' by Unwin in 2001,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Unwin | first1 = D.M. | year = 2001 | title = An overview of the pterosaur assemblage from the Cambridge Greensand (Cretaceous) of Eastern England | journal = Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe | volume = 4 | pages = 189–221 | doi=10.1002/mmng.4860040112| doi-access = free }}</ref> and later in 2013, Rodrigues & Kellner agreed with this synonymy.<ref name="Rodrigues & Kellner 2013"/>

In 2013, paleontologists Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Kellner made an extensive review of the species of ''Ornithocheirus'', and stated that the generic name ''Lonchodectes'' would have been a ''nomen dubium'', and therefore reassigned both ''Lonchodectes machaerorhynchus'' and ''L. microdon'' into the genus ''Lonchodraco'', creating ''Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus'' and ''L. microdon''.<ref name="Rodrigues & Kellner 2013"/>

In his review of Lonchodectidae, Alexander Averianov reassigned ''Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus'' to ''Ikrandraco'', and also declared ''Lonchodraco microdon'' (including ''O. oweni'') a junior synonym of ''machaerorhynchus''.<ref name="Averianov2020">{{cite journal|first=A.O. |last=Averianov |year=2020 |title=Taxonomy of the Lonchodectidae (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) |journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS |volume=324 |issue=1 |pages=41–55 |doi=10.31610/trudyzin/2020.324.1.41|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Description== thumb|''I. machaerorhynchus'' holotype ''Ikrandraco avatar'' is notable for having a very long, low skull (the height of the back of the skull, at the quadrates, is less than 19% the length of the skull), with a prominent blade-like crest on the underside of the lower jaw and no corresponding crest on the tip of the upper jaw, a crest combination not seen in other pterosaurs to date. The posterior edge of the crest also has a hook-like process. Each side of the upper jaw has at least 21 small cylindrical teeth, and each side of the lower jaw has at least 19. The skull of the type specimen is {{convert|286.5|mm|in|sp=us}} long, and the skull of the second specimen is at least {{convert|268.3|mm|in|sp=us}} long.<ref name=XWetal14ikran/>

Rodrigues & Kellner established four autapomorphies of ''Ikrandraco machaerorhynchus'' (then ''Lonchodraco''). A deep crest is present at the underside of the lower jaws. To the rear, the profile of this crest turns upwards. Behind this crest a depression is present at the underside of the jaws. The midline groove at the top of the lower jaws symphysis is deep. Furthermore, there is a density of 4.5 teeth per three centimeters of jaw edge.<ref name="Rodrigues & Kellner 2013"/>

==Classification== Wang ''et al.'' performed a phylogenetic analysis including ''Ikrandraco'' and found it to be a basal pteranodontoid, more derived than ''Pteranodon'' but not as derived as the istiodactylids, anhanguerids, and other pteranodontoids.<ref name=XWetal14ikran/> The portion of their results dealing with Pteranodontoidea is shown below.

{{clade| style=font-size:100%;line-height:85% |label1=Pteranodontoidea |1={{clade |1=''Pteranodon'' |2={{clade |1=''Cimoliopterus'' |2='''''Ikrandraco''''' |3={{clade |1=''Istiodactylus'' |2=''Nurhachius'' }} |4={{clade |1={{clade |1="Cearadactylus" ''ligabuei'' |2=''Guidraco'' |3=''Ludodactylus'' }} |2={{clade |1=''Caulkicephalus'' |2=''Cearadactylus'' |3=''Liaoningopterus'' |4=''Tropeognathus'' |5={{clade |1=''Anhanguera spielbergi'' |2={{clade |1=''Anhanguera piscator'' |2=''Anhanguera santanae'' }} }} }} }} }} }} }} [[File:Lonchodraco microdon.jpg|thumb|upright|''Lonchodraco(?) microdon'' holotype and holotype of ''Ornithocheirus oweni'', both now assigned to ''I. machaerorhynchus'']]

The cladogram below is a topology recovered by Pêgas ''et al.'' (2019). In the analyses, they recovered ''Ikrandraco'' as a member of the family Lonchodraconidae, and the sister taxon of ''Lonchodraco''.<ref name=Targaryendraco>Rubi V. Pêgas, Borja Holgado & Maria Eduarda C. Leal (2019) On ''Targaryendraco wiedenrothi'' gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids, Historical Biology, {{doi|10.1080/08912963.2019.1690482}} </ref> {{clade|style=font-size:100%; line-height:100% | label1=Lanceodontia | 1={{clade | 1={{clade | label1=Lonchodraconidae | 1={{clade | 1=''Lonchodraco'' | 2='''''Ikrandraco''''' }} | label2=Istiodactyliformes | 2={{clade | 1={{clade | 1=''Haopterus'' }} | 2={{clade | 1=''Hongshanopterus'' | label2=Istiodactylidae | 2={{clade | 1=''Nurhachius'' | label2=Istiodactylinae | 2={{clade | 1=''Istiodactylus'' | 2=''Liaoxipterus'' }} }} }} }} }} | 2={{clade | label1=Boreopteridae | 1={{clade | 1=''Boreopterus'' | 2=''Zhenyuanopterus'' }} | label2=Ornithocheirae | 2={{clade | 1=''Ornithocheirus'' | 2={{clade | label1=Targaryendraconia | 1={{clade | 1=Targaryendraconidae | 2=Cimoliopteridae }} | label2=Anhangueria | 2={{clade | 1=Hamipteridae | 2=Anhangueridae }} }} }} }} }} }}

==Paleobiology== Wang ''et al.'' interpreted the crest as a possible adaptation for skim fishing, although they did not regard this as the animal's main method of foraging. The hook on the crest may have been an attachment point for a throat pouch for storing food, akin to a pelican. ''Ikrandraco'' was an approximate contemporary of the distantly related anhanguerians ''Liaoningopterus gui'' and ''Guidraco venator'', and all three are regarded as piscivores, but ''Ikrandraco'' differed from them in its much smaller and less robust teeth, indicating it had a different niche.<ref name=XWetal14ikran/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Asia Category:Pteranodontoidea Category:Fossil taxa described in 2014 Category:Taxa named by Alexander Kellner Category:Paleontology in Liaoning Category:Pterosaur genera