Pronunciation: DRAK-o-niks
Meaning: Dragon claw
Author/s: Mateus and Antunes (2001)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Lourinhã, Portugal
Discovery Chart Position: #500
Draconyx loureiroi
(Loureiro's Dragon Claw)Etymology
Draconyx is derived from the Latin "draco" (dragon) and the Greek "onyx" (claw).
The species epithet, loureiroi (loh-RAY-roo-ie) is named for João de Loureiro (1717-1791): "Portuguese Jesuit, pioneer in Portuguese Paleontology, an excellent botanist, astronomer and medical doctor".
Discovery
The remains of Draconyx were discovered in the Praia Azul Member of the Lourinhã Formation ("Bombarral unit") at Vale de Frades, Estremadura, Portugal, by Carlos Anunciação — a member of the Museum of Lourinhã — in 1991.
The holotype (ML 357) is a partly articulated but poorly preserved partial skeleton consisting of a partial hand and three hand claws, three tail vertebrae, a chevron, the knobbly parts from the elbow end of an upper arm, the knee end of a thigh, and the knee and ankle ends of a shin and calf, an ankle, a heel, four foot bones, five toe bones and two foot claws, and a couple of teeth. Twenty-one years later, Rotatori et al. expanded the holotype of Draconyx with previously unreported hand bones, which had been stored at the home of Anunciação since their discovery in 1991. At the same time, they excluded a left thigh (ML 434), found just 1 km north of Vale de Frades near Praia do Caniçal, that Mateus and Antunes had originally referred to Draconyx in 2001.
Two ornithopod footprints found at Porto Escada in 1999 may have been left by Draconyx.
