Pterosaur teeth from the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian) Cliff End Bone Bed, Wadhurst Clay Formation, Wealden Supergroup of southern England, and their possible affinities

Abstract

Until now there have been no formal descriptions of pterosaur remains from the Cliff End Bone Bed of the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian), Wadhurst Clay Formation, Wealden Supergroup, of south-east England. This horizon yields abundant vertebrate material representing both aquatic and terrestrial taxa and recent examination of a large collection of vertebrate remains obtained by a private collector has led to the discovery of two isolated pterosaur teeth, both referable to the same taxon. Tooth crown morphology differs from that of teeth informally reported from the Wadhurst Clay Formation and attributed to ornithocheirids in being triangular in lingual and labial view, labiolingually compressed with well-defined carinae on the mesial and distal margins and with a low basal cingulum. Their possible affinities are discussed, and they are tentatively, but with some uncertainty, attributed to an istiodactylid. If this attribution is correct, they represent the earliest record of Istiodactylidae to date.