Bogolubovia

Bogolubovia; Temporal range: Campanian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Pterosauria
Suborder:	†Pterodactyloidea
Family:	†Pteranodontidae
Genus:	†Bogolubovia; Nesov & Yarkov, 1989
Type species
	†Ornithostoma orientalis; Bogolubov, 1914
Species
	†B. orientalis ; (Bogolubov, 1914);
Synonyms
	Ornithostoma orientalis ; Bogolubov, 1914; Pteranodon orientalis ; (Bogolubov, 1914);

Bogolubovia is a genus of pterosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (early Campanian) Rybushka Formation of Petrovsk, Saratov Oblast, Russia. It is named for Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolubov, the paleontologist who discovered the remains in 1914.

Classification

Bogolubov had initially assigned the specimen, consisting of a single partial large cervical vertebra, as a new species of Ornithostoma, O. orientalis. It was later reclassified as a species of Pteranodon, before being reassigned to a separate genus of Pteranodontidae by Lev Nesov and Alexander Yarkov in 1989.^[1]^[2] The holotype has probably been lost, but other partial remains have been referred to the genus.

Some paleontologists considered it a probable member of the family Azhdarchidae. In 2008, however, it was considered to be a nomen dubium that might in fact be identical to the genus Volgadraco, another pterosaur from Russia.^[3] In 2020, Averianov and Arkhangelsky suggested that the cervical vertebrae of Bogolubovia is similar to that of Volgadraco, reconsidered as a pteranodontid, and thus this genus is likely a pteranodontid.^[4] New remains described in 2022 suggested that Bogulobovia and Volgadraco were both valid species of pteranodontids.^[5]

Bogolubovia would have been a mid-sized pterosaur, with an estimated wingspan of 3–4 metres (9.8–13.1 ft) suggested by the holotype; a later found radius indicates a wingspan of 4.3 metres (14 ft).^[6]

References

^ Bogolubov, N.N. (1914). "O pozvonk’ pterodaktilya uz’ vyerkhnyem’lovyikh’ otlozhyenii Saratovskoi gubyernii (A propos d'une vertèbre de Pterodactyle des depots cretacés superieurs du gouvernment de Sartoff). [On a pterodactyle vertebra from Upper Cretaceous deposits of the Government of Saratoff]." Annuaire geologique et mineralogique de la Russie, 16(1): 1-7. (Russian text, French resume).
^ Nesov, L.A. and Yarkov, A.A. (1989). “New Birds from the Cretaceous–Paleogene of the USSR and Some Remarks on the History of Origin and Evolution of the Class.” Tr. Zool. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 197: 78–97.
^ Averianov, A.O.; Arkhangelsky, M.S.; Pervushov, E.M. (October 2008). "A New Late Cretaceous Azhdarchid (Pterosauria, Azhdarchidae) from the Volga Region". Paleontological Journal. 42 (6): 634–642. doi:10.1134/S0031030108060099.
^ Alexander O. Averianov; Maxim S. Arkhangelsky (2020). "A large pteranodontid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Eastern Europe". Geological Magazine. 158 (7): 1143–1155. doi:10.1017/S0016756820001119. S2CID 229441587.
^ Averianov AO, Kurin AS (2022). "A new specimen of pteranodontid pterosaur Bogolubovia orientalis from the Upper Cretaceous of Penza Province, Russia". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2087522.
^ Averianov, A.O., Arkhangelsky, M.S., Pervushov, E.M., and Ivanov, A.V. (2005). "A New Record of an Azhdarchid (Pterosauria: Azhdarchidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of the Volga Region." Paleontological Journal, 39(4): 433-439.