Banguela: the disputed name of a toothless Brazilian pterosaur

Banguela oberlii was established in 2014 for an incomplete lower jaw from the Early Cretaceous Romualdo Formation of Brazil. A 2018 reassessment of that same specimen proposed Thalassodromeus oberlii. These names therefore refer to one type fossil under different generic interpretations, not to two newly discovered animals. The jaw is informative about its toothless symphysis, but it cannot document the wings, complete skull or feeding behaviour of the animal.

Quick facts

A name attached to a jaw

The specimen NMSG SAO 251093 was previously referred to Thalassodromeus sethi. Headden and Campos examined the toothless symphysis and its combination of ridges, shelves and margins, and named a separate genus in 2014. The Portuguese-derived name alludes to the lack of teeth; the species honours Urs Oberli, who donated the fossil to the Naturmuseum St. Gallen.

The reported source is the Romualdo Formation of the Araripe Basin. A precise collecting point and bed are not documented for the specimen, so the formation supplies its broad geological setting rather than an individually measured age.

What the specimen preserves

The front portions of the lower jaw are fused, and the preserved bone has no tooth sockets. The symphysis has surfaces and edges useful for comparison, although its front tip and rear branches are incomplete. Extending those broken edges into a complete living beak is necessarily an inference. Toothlessness alone says little about what the pterosaur ate.

The Aymberedactylus profile describes another toothless jaw from the Araripe Basin, but from a different formation and with a different shape. That shared feature does not make the specimens the same species. Afrotapejara illustrates how uneven skull preservation can be even among related pterosaurs.

Why the classification changed

Pêgas and colleagues revisited the jaw using a cast, MN 4703-V, during their 2018 redescription of Thalassodromeus sethi. Their phylogenetic analysis placed the jaw alongside that species within Thalassodrominae. They retained a species distinction but combined the older specific epithet with the genus Thalassodromeus, resulting in T. oberlii.

This is an analytical interpretation of the existing fossil, not a discovery of an associated skeleton. The precise placement depends on the anatomical characters and comparison sample. Nor does assignment to the genus license copying the giant crest of the T. sethi skull onto the animal known only from a jaw fragment.

An incomplete portrait

The type lacks wings and other postcranial bones, so it does not yield a directly measured wingspan, mass or flight performance. Its sex, growth stage, colouring and feeding behaviour are also unknown. The Romualdo sediments record burial, not every habitat used in life. The jaw matters chiefly because it permits detailed comparison of toothless pterosaur anatomy and exposes how a genus assignment can change with a new analysis.