Wellnhopterus

Before formal naming or identification, this organism was known as the following on this wiki:
**"Javelinadactylus"**

## Statistics

### Diet

Omnivorous?

*Wellnhopterus*, or the "Javelina *Tupuxuara*", is an extinct genus of azhdarchoid, possibly a thalassodromine, that lived in Texas during the Late Cretaceous.

## Description

*Wellnhopterus* is known from a partially articulated skull and mandible. It possesses a large nasoantorbital fenestra and a rostral index of medium value, and has been assigned to the Thalassodrominae. *Wellnhopterus* was found in 1986 in Brewster County, but was never properly studied. Jaws and neck vertebrae were recovered. However, its taxonomic placement is still uncertain, even after description in 2021. This pterosaur is the first tapejarid and thalassodromine from Maastrichtian North America, making known diversity more rich. This suggests that tapejarids were still diversifying during the Maastrichtian.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs used a photo of the material, captioning it *Quetzalcoatlus* sp.. John Sibbick reconstructed it with too blunt a snout, which became a popular meme for many other illustrations. Alexander Kellner and Wann Langston jr. (1996) found the remains dated to older layers, and coupled with a shorter and stouter neck, could not have been *Quetzalcoatlus*. Kellner (2004) assigned it to Tapejaridae based on only the skull. David Martill and Darren Naish (2006) found it resembled *Tupuxuara* more than *Quetzalcoatlus*, assigning it the "Javelina *Tupuxuara*". Brian Andres (2012) analyzed the remains, placing them in Azhdarchidae (when any combination were entered). Mark Witton (2013) favoured the azhdarchid conclusion, since he compared it with blunt-jawed forms.

The jaws are 31,5 inches (80 centimeters) long. TMM 42489-2, the holotype, was found in the Javelina Formation from the Middle Maastrichtian. It is the front half of paired preaxillae, maxillae, jugals and mandibular symphasis in the mandible and dentary rami. It is partially-articulated. TMM 42489-1, neck vertebrae, is considered separate from the holotype. It was descried by Hebert Bruno Nascimento Campos and named "Javelinadactylus sagebieli" ("Javelina finger"), with the species epithet honouring James Christopher Sagebiel. However, it was renamed *Wellnhopterus* in a series of papers released on December 2021.

## Classification

Darren Naish had previously hypothesized that the holotype of *Wellnhopterus* is a species of *Tupuxuara*. Andres and Myers (2013) find:

"Javelinadactylus" was named in July 2021 as a name for the BIg Bend azhdarchids contemporaneous with *Quetzalcoatlus northropi* and *Q. lawsoni*, the former named in December 2021. In the same paper, they coined *Wellnhopterus brevirostris*. Since this paper had been in revision for several years before the "J. sagebieli" paper had begun. Thus, the genus was suggested to be abandoned in favour of *Wellnhopterus*. However, as "Javelinadactylus" was not validly named, based on unethical practices and was not given the proper criteria for validity, The author of "Javelinadactylus" had known about the *Quetzalcoatlus* monograph and had rushed to publish the name without permission of image use and having seen the specimens in real life. It is disputed whether *Wellnhopterus* or "Javelinadactylus" is the proper name, but since "Javelinadactylus" is a nomen nudum, it has been suggested for disuse. However, in July 2022 the description of "Javelinadactylus" was retracted following an investigation revealing that it did not own data and thus provides no systematic issue; *Wellnhopterus* is now considered the formal name of this taxon.

## Paleoecology

*Wellnhopterus* was likely raptorial, as the "blunt-jawed" azhdarchids and thalassodromines were specialized to hunting proportionally larger prey. It was contemporaneous with both *Quetzalcoatlus* sp. and other pterosaur taxa. This is used to hypothesize diversity was greater in the Maastrichtian than assumed.

## References

* Campos, H.B.N. RETRACTED ARTICLE: A new azhdarchoid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous Javelina Formation of Texas. *Biologia* (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00841-7
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellnhopterus
* Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs, Wellnhofer (1991)
* https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS1755691013000303
* https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2021.1907587
* https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2020.1780247
* https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2019.1593184
* https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2020.1780599
* https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/12/8/the-quetz-monograph-lives
* https://twitter.com/Texaspaleo/status/1468550333655928836