In Depth
If the name Targaryendraco sounds like something out of the television series Game of Thrones (or the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series), then you are actually right. The name of this pterosaur actually means ‘Targaryen dragon’, a reference to the house of Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. Clearly the describers of this pterosaur are fans of these series, though the specific reference here is that the holotype fossils Targaryendraco are black, like the dragons members of House Targaryen ride.
Targaryendraco was initially described as a species of Ornithocheirus, O. wiedenrothi. Now as a distinct genus, Targaryendraco is thought to represent a lanceodont pterosaur. The shape of the jaws suggest that Targaryendraco was a probable hunter of fish.
Further Reading
- Pterosaur remains (Reptilia, Pterosauria) from the Lower Cretaceous (Hauterivian) of Hannover (Lower Saxony). - Neues Jahrbuch f�r Geologie und Pal�ontologie, Abhandlungen, 181: 241–254. - Rupert Wild - 1990. - On Targaryendraco wiedenrothi gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids. Historical Biology. - R. V. Pegas, B. Holgado,& M. E. C. Leal - 2019.
