In 1928,
Charles Gilmore named a new species of
Pteranodon:
P. oregonensis. A
humerus (
holotype MPUC V.126713), two fused dorsal vertebrae and the broken-off end of some joint bone had been unearthed from the
Lower Cretaceous (
Albian stage) beds of the
Hudspeth Formation in
Wheeler County,
Oregon, United States, to which the
specific epithet refers. Gilmore noted similarities to
Nyctosaurus though the specimens were larger. In 1989,
S. Christopher Bennett concluded that the remains might be those of a member of the
Azhdarchidae instead of a
pteranodontid. In 1991, Russian paleontologist
Lev Nessov therefore named a new azhdarchid genus:
Bennettazhia. The genus name honors Bennett and combines his name with
Persian azhdarha, "dragon", a reference to
Azhdarcho, the
type genus of the Azhdarchidae. Bennett himself in 1994 changed his opinion and stated that it belonged to the
Dsungaripteridae. Since then, some authors including Bennett himself have classified this genus as a sister group to the
Tapejaridae or possibly a member of the
Thalassodrominae. In 2023, the discovery of
guano and unusual fragmentation of
ammonites from the Hudspeth Formation have been interpreted as evidence that this pterosaur ate
molluscs and formed large colonies on nearby cliffs similar to modern
seagull rookeries. New remains of this pterosaur are also reported, including two isolated teeth (F127985A and F127910B) and an edentulous (teeth-lacking) section of the lower
mandible (F127960). ==Description==