Nurhachius | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

Nurhachius is a genus of istiodactylid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Barremian to Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. Its fossil remains date back about 120 million years ago. The genus was named in 2005 by Wang Xiaolin, Alexander Kellner, Zhou Zhonghe and Diogenes de Almeida Campos. The type species is Nurhachius ignaciobritoi. The genus name refers to Nurhaci, the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty, whose original power base encompassed the region where the fossil was found. The specific name honors the late Brazilian paleontologist Ignácio Aureliano Machado Brito, who pioneered the study of pterosaurs in his country. Nurhachius was first described based on its holotype fossil, IVPP V-13288, a partial skull and skeleton. A second specimen, LPM 00023, was later referred to the species. In 2019, a second species was named: Nurhachius luei. The specific name honors the late Lü Junchang. It is based on the holotype BPMC-0204 from the lower Jiufotang Foramation, a skull with lower jaws and seven neck vertebrae. In 2023, a specimen representing an adult istiodactylid with a 1.6 meter-wingspan was assigned to Nurhachius sp. and described from the Jingangshan Member of the upper part of the Yixian Formation, representing the geologically oldest known record of the genus. The wingspan of Nurhachius was estimated at 2.4 to 2.5 meters (7.87–8.20 ft). In 2008, Witton estimated the wingspan at , and the weight at . In 2019, a single apomorphy, or unique distinguishing trait of the genus as such, was indicated: the front tip of the palate is slightly turned upwards. The skull is elongated with in the holotype a preserved length of and an estimated total length of about . The nasoantorbital fenestra, the large skull opening, is relatively long at 58% of the skull length. The lower jaws have a length of . The skull is similar to that of Istiodactylus, which lived at about the same time in what is now England, especially in the teeth that are compressed side to side and the long fenestra.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (6)

Cimoliopterus

Cimoliopterus is a genus of pterosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now England and the United States. The first known specimen, consisting of the front part of a snout including part of a crest, was discovered in the Grey Chalk Subgroup of Kent, England, and described as the new species Pterodactylus cuvieri in 1851. The specific name cuvieri honours the palaeontologist George Cuvier, whereas the genus Pterodactylus was then used for many pterosaur species that are not thought to be closely related today.

Pteranodontoidea

Pteranodontoidea (or pteranodontoids, from Greek meaning "toothless wings") is an extinct clade of ornithocheiroid pterosaurs from the Early to Late Cretaceous (early Valanginian to late Maastrichtian stages) of Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner in 1996. In 2003, Kellner defined the clade as a node-based taxon consisting of the last common ancestor of Anhanguera, Pteranodon and all its descendants.

Lonchodraco

Lonchodraco is a genus of lonchodraconid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of southern England. The genus includes species that were previously assigned to other genera. In 1846, James Scott Bowerbank named and described some remains found in a chalk pit at Burham near Maidstone in Kent, as a new species of Pterodactylus: Pterodactylus giganteus. The specific name means "the gigantic one" in Latin. The same pit generated remains of Pterodactylus cuvieri.