Nurhachius luei, a new istiodactylid pterosaur (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province (China) and comments on the Istiodactylidae

Xuanyu Zhou; Rodrigo V Pêgas; Maria E C Leal; Niels Bonde

doi:10.7717/peerj.7688

Nurhachius luei, a new istiodactylid pterosaur (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province (China) and comments on the Istiodactylidae

PeerJ. 2019 Sep 19:7:e7688. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7688. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Xuanyu Zhou^{1

2}, Rodrigo V Pêgas³, Maria E C Leal^{4

5}, Niels Bonde^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, China.
² China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China.
³ Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology and Animal Behavior, Universidade Federal do ABC, São Bernardo, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁴ Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
⁵ Zoological Museum (SNM), Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁶ Fur Museum (Museum Saling), Fur, Denmark.

Abstract

A new istiodactylid pterosaur, Nurhachius luei sp. nov., is here reported based on a complete skull with mandible and some cervical vertebrae from the lower part of the Jiufotang Formation of western Liaoning (China). This is the second species of Nurhachius, the type-species being N. ignaciobritoi from the upper part of the Jiufotang Formation. A revised diagnosis of the genus Nurhachius is provided, being this taxon characterized by the presence of a slight dorsal deflection of the palatal anterior tip, which is homoplastic with the Anhangueria and Cimoliopterus. N. luei sp. nov. shows an unusual pattern of tooth replacement, with respect to other pterodactyloid species. The relationships within the Istiodactylidae and with their closest taxa are investigated through a phylogenetic analysis by parsimony.

Keywords: Istiodactylidae; Jehol Biotas; Jiufotang Formation; Systematics; Taxonomy.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41672019, 41688103, 41790452). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.