Coloborhynchus was a species of pterosaur which lived in England (and possibly elsewhere) during the early Cretaceous Period approximately 140 million years ago.
The first specimen of this animal was found in the 1800s within the Hastings Beds of the Wealden Group, located in St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England (Rodrigues and Kellner 2008, page 220). The fossils found here date from the late Berriasian Stage to the early Valanginian Stage of the early Cretaceous Period (Rodrigues and Kellner 2013). The fossil was a very badly weathered front tip of the upper jaw which contained multiple tooth sockets and what looked like the beginning of a fin-like crest which stuck up from the top of the upper jaw. In 1874, Sir Richard Owen named this specimen Coloborhynchus. The name means “maimed/injured/damaged beak” in reference to the condition of the fossil when it was found.
Owen, Richard (1874). “Monograph on the fossil Reptilia of the Mesozoic Formations, Part I, Pterosauria”. London: The Palaeontolographical Society, 1874.
Coloborhynchus has been relegated to the status of a “waste basket taxon”. Numerous species have been assigned to the genus Coloborhynchus over the years, but nearly all of these have since been reclassified as other pterosaur genera. The only one which remains is the type species C. clavirostris, which was named by Sir Richard Owen back in 1874.
Coloborhynchus‘ classification has shifted around considerably over the years. It is currently classified as a genus within the pterosaur sub-family Coloborhynchinae, which is within the family Anhangueridae, which is part of the super-family Ornithocheirae. Closely-related genera include Aerodraco, Nicorhynchus, and Uktenadactylus (Rodrigues and Kellner 2008, page 220; Holgado and Pêgas 2020, pages 745, 754).
Recently, a partial lower jaw (collection ID code: RE 551.763.120 A 0333/1) was discovered in the Sachsenhagen clay pit (located about 30 km northwest of the city of Hannover), Lower Saxony, Germany within the lower part of the Stadthagen Formation. This partial lower jaw was dated to the lower Valanginian Stage of the early Cretaceous Period, approximately 139-136 MYA, and was attributed to a pterosaur within the family Anhangueridae but a more precise classification could not be obtained. It’s possible that this lower jaw could belong to a species of Coloborhynchus, but at the moment we cannot be sure (Abel et al 2021, pages S5-S21).
How big was Coloborhynchus? Since our one-and-only specimen of the type species C. clavirostris is a small fragment of the upper jaw, the size of the entire animal is difficult to tell. Remains of other supposed species are just as incomplete. One species named C. capito, which either may or may not be a true species of Coloborhynchus depending on which source you read, was stated to have had a wingspan of 7 meters (23 feet) (Martin and Unwin 2012, pages 1-9), making it one of the largest pterosaurs of the early Cretaceous Period. However, considering that this species is also named based upon a single small piece of an upper jaw, this measurement needs to be taken with a very large measure of skepticism.
Coloborhynchus shared its prehistoric British habitat with another pterosaur named Serradraco. Meanwhile on land roamed many species of dinosaurs including the brachiosaurid sauropod Pelorosaurus, the large iguanodontid Barilium, the smaller ridge-backed iguanodontid Hypselospinus, the 12 foot dryosaurid Valdosaurus, the 15 foot armored dinosaur Hylaeosaurus, the 12-15 foot stegosaur Regnosaurus, the 20-25 foot ridge-backed theropod Altispinax, and the somewhat dubious spinosaurid theropod Suchosaurus. Swimming in the water offshore was the 15 foot pliosaur Hastanectes, and several species of fish including at least three different species of hybodont sharks.
Coloborhynchus clavirostris. © Jason R. Abdale (February 22, 2024).
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Bibliography
Abel, Pascal; Hornung, Jahn J.; Kear, Benjamin P.; Sachs, Sven (2021). “An anhanguerian pterodactyloid mandible from the lower Valanginian of Northern Germany, and the German record of Cretaceous pterosaurs”. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, volume 66 (Supplement to 3) (August 2021). Pages S5-S12.
https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app66/app008182020.pdf.
Holgado, Borja; Pêgas, Rodrigo V. (2020). “A taxonomic and phylogenetic review of the anhanguerid pterosaur group Coloborhynchinae and the new clade Tropeognathinae”. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, volume 65, issue 4 (2020). Pages 743-761.
https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app65/app007512020.pdf.
Martill, David M.; Unwin, David M. (2012). “The world’s largest toothed pterosaur, NHMUK R481, an incomplete rostrum of Coloborhynchus capito (Seeley, 1870) from the Cambridge Greensand of England”. Cretaceous Research, volume 34 (April 2012). Pages 1-9.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019566711100125X?via%3Dihub.
Rodrigues, Taissa; Kellner, Alexander Wilhelm Armin (2008). “Review of the pterodactyloid pterosaur Coloborhynchus“. Zitteliana, Series B, issue B28 (December 31, 2008). Pages 219-228.
https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/12017/1/zitteliana_2008_b28_15.pdf.
Rodrigues, Taissa; Kellner, Alexander Wilhelm Armin (2013). “Taxonomic review of the Ornithocheirus complex (Pterosauria) from the Cretaceous of England”. Zookeys, volume 308 (June 12, 2013). 1-112.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3689139/.
Categories: Paleontology, Uncategorized
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