Dolicorhamphus

Dolicorhamphus is an extinct genus of pterosaurs from the Middle Jurassic Taynton Limestone Formation and Fuller's Earth Formations of England. The genus contains two species, D. bucklandii and D. depressirostris.

Discovery and naming

D. bucklandi is based on its holotype, a now lost jaw from the Taynton Limestone Formation that was described as a species of Pterodactylus in 1832, and the list of known specimens are: NHMUK PV R 28610, 32752, 37765, 38014, 38015, 38016, 38017, 38019, 38020, 38025, 40126, 47994, 47999a, 1028, 1029, 1030, 1824, 2637, 6749, 6750 ; OUM J.28275, J.28537, J.283043, which include limb elements that show no crossover with the holotype jaw. The holotype jaw measured roughly in length and was given to Thomas Henry Huxley by Henry Reynolds-Moreton.
D. depressirostris is based on its holotype, GSM 113723, and NHMUK PV R 40126 and GSM 113723 has been damaged with the right ramus broken off and reattached. The teeth of D. depressirostris reached up to long and the elongate jaw, thin bone walls, the dental arrangement and smooth bone texture confirmed that it was a pterosaur.

Classification

Both species of Dolicorhamphus were assigned to the wastebasket genus Rhamphocephalus, considered a "rhamphorhynchoid" pterosaur. However, the type species of Rhamphocephalus, R. prestwichii, was reinterpreted as a thalattosuchian by O'Sullivan and Martill on 2018, but "R." depressirostris and "R." bucklandii were clearly pterosaurian; the former was considered to be in the Scaphognathinae while the latter was only referred to a more general Rhamphorhynchidae. Andres resurrected the genus Dolicorhamphus for the two, finding it to be a valid genus of pterosaurs closely related to Klobiodon, although he did not assign a type species. This generic assignment has since been followed by other researchers.