Ornithocheirus

Uncommon card · No. 108857

Ornithocheirus (from Ancient Greek "ὄρνις", meaning bird, and "χεῖρ", meaning hand) is a pterosaur genus known from fragmentary fossil remains uncovered from sediments in the United Kingdom and possibly Morocco. Several species have been referred to the genus, most of which are now considered as dubious species, or members of different genera, and the genus is now often considered to include only the type species, Ornithocheirus simus. Species have been referred to Ornithocheirus from the mid-Cretaceous period of North America, Europe and South America, but O. simus is known mostly from the United Kingdom, though a specimen referred to O. cf. simus is also known from the Late Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of Morocco. Because O. simus was originally named based on poorly preserved fossil material, the genus Ornithocheirus has suffered enduring problems of zoological nomenclature. Fossil remains of Ornithocheirus have been recovered mainly from the Cambridge Greensand of England, dating to the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner, CC BY 3.0