| Wellnhopterus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian),
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Illustration of specimen TMM 42489-2, the holotype | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Family: | †Azhdarchidae |
| Genus: | †Wellnhopterus Andres & Langston Jr., 2021 |
| Species: | †W. brevirostris
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Wellnhopterus brevirostris Andres & Langston Jr., 2021
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Wellnhopterus is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period in what us now Texas, United States. Its fossil remains were discovered in the Javelina Formation at Big Bend National Park, located in Brewster County, Texas. The fossils consist of a set of upper and lower jaws, several cervical (neck) vertebrae, and a fragmentary long bone. Originally referred to an indeterminate species of Quetzalcoatlus, these remains would receive various interpretations ranging from a tapejarid to an azhdarchid identity. It was not until December 2021 that they were given a new genus and type species, Wellnhopterus brevirostris, named and described by paleontologists Brian Andres and, posthumously, Wann Langston Jr.. Its generic name means "Wellnhofer's wing", named in honor of paleontologist Peter Wellnhofer, while its specific name means "short-beaked", attributing to the blunt structure of its jaws.
Back in July 2021, the jaw remains of Wellnhopterus had actually been given a separate genus and type species, "Javelinadactylus sagebieli", named and described by paleontologist Hebert Campos. He assigned it to the group Thalassodrominae. The article describing it, however, has now been retracted due to Campos lacking ownership of the reported data and because Andres had submitted his paper describing Wellnhopterus earlier than he did. As of the present day, Wellnhopterus brevirostris is the formal name of this pterosaur.
In its description, Andres and Langston Jr. estimated a wingspan of about 3 m (9 ft 10 in), making it a mid-sized pterosaur. It is comparable to the wingspan estimate of the contemporary species Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni, which sits at about 4.5 m (15 ft). The blunt structure of the snout, coupled with the more robustly-built and shorter neck of Wellnhopterus is quite different from the contemporary azhdarchid Quetzalcoatlus, which had more slender jaws and a longer neck. This anatomy of Wellnhopterus has been compared to other "blunt-jawed" azhdarchids, such as Hatzegopteryx, which are more adapted to hunt proportionally large prey in a raptorial manner. Wellnhopterus has been assigned to the family Azhdarchidae, but its position within the group has been somewhat disputed. Its describers placed it within the subfamily Quetzalcoatlinae, but other studies have recovered it in a more basal position outside Quetzalcoatlinae.