Targaryendraco
Name:
Targaryendraco
(Targaryen dragon).
Phonetic: Tar-gah-ry-en-fray-ko.
Named By: R. V. Pegas, B. Holgado &
M. E. C. Leal - 2019.
Synonyms: Ornithocheirus wiedenrothi.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea, Lanceodontia, Targaryendraconia.
Species: T. wiedenrothi (type).
Diet: Piscivore?
Size: Unknown due to lack of remains.
Known locations: Germany - Stadthagen Formation.
Time period: Hauterivian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains.
If
the name
Targaryendraco sounds like something out of the
television series
Game of Thrones (or the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series),
then you are actually right. The name of this pterosaur
actually
means ‘Targaryen dragon’, a reference to the house of Targaryen
from A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. Clearly the describers
of this pterosaur are fans of these series, though the specific
reference here is that the holotype fossils Targaryendraco
are
black, like the dragons members of House Targaryen ride.
Targaryendraco
was initially
described as a species of Ornithocheirus,
O. wiedenrothi. Now as
a distinct genus, Targaryendraco is thought to
represent a lanceodont
pterosaur. The shape of the jaws suggest that Targaryendraco
was a
probable hunter of fish.
Further reading
- Pterosaur remains (Reptilia, Pterosauria) from the Lower
Cretaceous (Hauterivian) of Hannover (Lower Saxony). -
Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 181:
241–254. - Rupert Wild - 1990.
- On Targaryendraco wiedenrothi gen. nov.
(Pterodactyloidea,
Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new
cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids.
Historical Biology. - R. V. Pegas, B. Holgado,&
M. E. C. Leal - 2019.
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