page_title: Tethydraco
section_title: Discovery and naming
hierarchical_section_title: Tethydraco / Discovery and naming
caption_attribution_description: A) Map showing the location of the phosphate mines in Morocco, (B) map showing Sidi Daoui and Sidi Chennane mines, and (C) stratigraphic column for the phosphates of the Sidi Daoui area (after [40]). Abbreviations: PETM, Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
context_page_description: Tethydraco is a genus of pteranodontid pterosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period of what is now the area of present Morocco, about 66 million years ago. The type and only species is T. regalis.
context_section_description: Since 2015, a group of paleontologists is acquiring pterosaur fossils from commercial Moroccan fossil traders, who obtain these from workers in the phosphate mines on the Khouribga plateau, which is located within the Ouled Abdoun Basin. The purpose of this project is to determine pterosaur diversity in the latest Cretaceous. From this stage, no Konservat-Lagerstätten are known, sites combining a large variety of species with exceptional preservation. It is in such sites that the vast majority of pterosaur fossils and taxa have been discovered. The latest Cretaceous had only produced some partial skeletons of Azhdarchidae. Researchers usually have concluded from this fact that other pterosaur groups had already gone extinct. However, an alternative explanation could be that the poor fossil record caused a distorted image of the true situation through undersampling. To test this hypothesis, it was tried to collect all pterosaurs bones brought to light by the massive and systematic commercial exploitation of the Khourigba phosphate layers. It transpired that indeed some finds could not be determined as azhdarchids and likely represented other groups. It was decided to publish four of these as new species.
  In 2018, Nicholas R. Longrich, David M. Martill and Brian Andres described and named the type species Tethydraco regalis. The generic name combines a reference to the Tethys, the ocean in the Late Cretaceous separating Africa from Europe and Asia, with a Latin draco, "dragon". The specific name means "royal" in Latin.
  The holotype, FSAC-OB 1, was found in the middle Couche III, itself the lowest phosphate layer complex at Sidi Daoui, dating from the late Maastrichtian. It consists of a left humerus. The bone is relatively crushed. Other specimens have been referred to the species. FSAC-OB 199 is an ulna. FSAC-OB 200 is another ulna. FSAC-OB 201 is a thighbone. FSAC-OB 202 consists of a thighbone with shinbone. The describing authors admitted that a connection between the holotype and the referred specimens is hard to proof, in view of the lack of overlapping material. However, the wide ulnae fit the exceptional distal width of the humerus. The thighbones were, more tentatively, referred because they seemed to be pteranodontid.
caption: Maps showing phosphate mines in Morocco where the fossils were found
exif: {}