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Pterodactyloids
Pterodactyloidea (derived from the Greek words ''πτερόν'' (''pterón'', for usual ''ptéryx'') "wing", and ''δάκτυλος'' (''dáktylos'') "finger" meaning "winged finger", "wing-finger" or "finger-wing") is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs ("wing lizards"), and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles. They appeared during the middle Jurassic Period, and differ from the basal (though paraphyletic) rhamphorhynchoids by their short tails and long wing metacarpals (hand bones). The most advanced forms also lack teeth, and by the late Cretaceous, all known pterodactyloids were toothless. Many species had well-developed crests on the skull, a form of display taken to extremes in giant-crested forms like ''Nyctosaurus'' and ''Tupandactylus''. Pterodactyloids were the last surviving pterosaurs when the order became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, together with the non-avian dinosaurs and most marine reptiles. "Pteroda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pterosaur
Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the Order (biology), order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved flying and gliding animals, powered flight. Their wings were formed by a membrane of skin, muscle, and other tissue (biology), tissues stretching from the ankles to a dramatically lengthened fourth finger. There were two major types of pterosaurs. Basal pterosaurs (also called 'non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs' or 'rhamphorhynchoids') were smaller animals with fully toothed jaws and, typically, long tails. Their wide wing membranes probably included and connected the hind legs. On the ground, they would have had an awkward sprawling posture, but the anatomy of their joints and strong claws would have made them effective climbers, and some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ningchengopterus
''Ningchengopterus'' is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period (Aptian stage). Its fossil remains were found in the Yixian Formation of what is now China. It is known from a juvenile specimen, holotype CYGB-0035, an almost complete articulated skeleton of a hatchling also showing soft parts, such as the flight membrane and pycnofibres, compressed on a plate and counterplate. It was the first small toothed pterodactyloid pterosaur specimen found in China. The type species ''Ningchengopterus liuae'' was named and described by Lü Junchang in 2009. The genus name combines a reference to the Ningcheng district in Inner Mongolia with a Latinised Greek ''pteron'', "wing". The specific name honours Ms Liu Jingyi who collected the fossil and donated it to science. ''Ningchengopterus'' was typified by the possession of about fifty teeth, twelve in each upper jaw and thirteen in each lower jaw. The teeth are curved, conical and pointed. The skull has a le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pterodactylus
''Pterodactylus'' (from Greek () meaning 'winged finger') is an extinct genus of pterosaurs. It is thought to contain only a single species, ''Pterodactylus antiquus'', which was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile. Fossil remains of ''Pterodactylus'' have primarily been found in the Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria, Germany, which dates from the Late Jurassic period (early Tithonian stage), about 150.8 to 148.5 million years ago. More fragmentary remains of ''Pterodactylus'' have tentatively been identified from elsewhere in Europe and in Africa. ''Pterodactylus'' was a generalist carnivore that probably fed on a variety of invertebrates and vertebrates. Like all pterosaurs, ''Pterodactylus'' had wings formed by a skin and muscle membrane stretching from its elongated fourth finger to its hind limbs. It was supported internally by collagen fibres and externally by keratinous ridges. ''Pterodactylus'' was a small pterosaur compared to other fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eupterodactyloidea
Eupterodactyloidea (meaning "true Pterodactyloidea") is an extinct group of pterodactyloid pterosaurs that existed from the latest Late Jurassic to the latest Late Cretaceous periods (Tithonian to Maastrichtian stages). Eupterodactyloids lived on all continents except Antarctica. Classification Eupterodactyloidea was named by S. Christopher Bennett in 1994 as an infraorder of the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Bennett defined it as an apomorphy-based clade. However, in 2010, Brian Andres re-defined the group as a stem-based taxon in his dissertation, and then formalized the definition in 2014 as all pterosaurs more closely related to ''Pteranodon longiceps'' than to ''Pterodactylus antiquus''. The slightly more exclusive group Ornithocheiroidea was re-defined in 2003 by Alexander Kellner. He defined it as the least inclusive clade containing ''Anhanguera blittersdorffi'', ''Pteranodon longiceps'', ''Dsungaripterus weii'', and ''Quetzalcoatlus northropi''. Ornithocheiroidea has often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archaeopterodactyloidea
Archaeopterodactyloidea (meaning "ancient Pterodactyloidea") is an extinct clade of pterodactyloid pterosaurs that lived from the middle Late Jurassic to the latest Early Cretaceous periods (Kimmeridgian to Albian stages) of Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. It was named by Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner in 1996 as the group that contains '' Germanodactylus'', ''Pterodactylus'', the Ctenochasmatidae and the Gallodactylidae. In 2003, Kellner defined the clade as a node-based taxon consisting of the last common ancestor of ''Pterodactylus'', '' Ctenochasma'' and '' Gallodactylus'' and all its descendants. Although phylogenetic analyses that based on David Unwin's 2003 analysis do not recover monophyletic Archaeopterodactyloidea, phylogenetic analyses that based on Kellner's analyses, or the analyses of Brian Andres (2008, 2010, 2018) recover monophyletic Archaeopterodactyloidea at the base of the Pterodactyloidea. The Antarctic Campanian specimen MN 7801-V was referred t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wenupteryx
''Wenupteryx'' is an extinct genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Late Jurassic (Tithonian stage) Vaca Muerta of Neuquén Province, southern Argentina. It was first named by Laura Codorniú and Zulma Gasparini in 2013 and the type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ... is ''Wenupteryx uzi''. It is a small-sized pterosaur related to the clade Euctenochasmatia or Archaeopterodactyloidea. See also * Timeline of pterosaur research References {{Portal bar, Paleontology, Argentina Pterodactyloids Tithonian life Late Jurassic pterosaurs of South America Jurassic Argentina Fossils of Argentina Neuquén Basin Fossil taxa described in 2013 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pangupterus
''Pangupterus'' (meaning Pangu wing) is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of China. It was first described and named by Lü Junchang ''et al''. It is known from a mostly-complete lower jaw, which bears 36 slender, evenly-spaced, conical teeth jutting out at an angle on its tip. Some teeth are smaller than the others, and appear to be replacement teeth. The teeth had a relatively high density of over , although the spaces between the teeth were wider than the diameter of the teeth themselves. Such teeth are not seen in any other toothed pterosaurs from the Jiufotang Formation with comparable material, and this specialized dental morphology is indicative of a piscivorous lifestyle. Although no phylogenetic analysis was conducted to determine its affinities, ''Pangupterus'' has a small process, called an odontoid, on the end of the maxilla; such a process is also seen in the istiodactylids ''Longchengpterus'' and ''Istiodactylus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samrukia
''Samrukia'' is a genus of large Cretaceous pterosaurs known only from a single lower jaw discovered in Kazakhstan. The holotype and only known specimen was collected from the Santonian- Campanian age Bostobynskaya Formation in Kyzylorda District. It was described by Darren Naish, Gareth Dyke, Andrea Cau, François Escuillié, and Pascal Godefroit in 2012, and the type species is named ''Samrukia nessovi''. The species is named after Lev Nessov, a paleontologist, and the genus is named after Samruk, a magical bird of Kazakh folklore. Classification The type specimen of ''Samrukia'' was at first believed to belong to an oviraptorosaurian theropod dinosaur. An initial cladistic analysis by Naish ''et al.'' found ''Samrukia nessovi'' instead to be a basal member of the bird lineage Ornithuromorpha. They interpreted ''Samrukia'' as a very large bird (the jawbone is twice as long as that of an ostrich), but noted that it is not known whether ''Samrukia'' would have been able ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kryptodrakon
''Kryptodrakon'' is an extinct genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Middle to Late Jurassic with an age of approximately 162.7 million years. It is known from a single type species, ''Kryptodrakon progenitor''. The age of its fossil remains made ''Kryptodrakon'' the basalmost and oldest pterodactyloid known to date. Discovery and naming In 2001, pterosaur bones were discovered in Xinjiang by Chris Sloan. The bones were first identified as those of a theropod; paleontologist James Clark later recognized their pterosaurian nature. In 2014, Brian Andres, Clark and Xu Xing named and described the type species ''Kryptodrakon progenitor''. The generic name means ''hidden dragon'' from Greek κρυπτός, ''kryptos'' (''hidden''), and δράκων, ''drakon'' (''dragon''). The name alludes to the film ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,'' which included some scenes filmed near the type locality. The specific name ''progenitor'' means ''ancestor'' or ''founder of a family'' in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbstosaurus
''Herbstosaurus'' is the name given to a genus of pterosaurs that lived during the Late Jurassic period, in what is now Argentina. In 1969 Argentine paleobotanist Rafael Herbst in the province Neuquén at Picun Leufú dug up a piece of sandstone holding a number of disarticulated bones of a small reptile. At the time it was assumed the rock dated to the Middle Jurassic (Callovian), about 163 million years ago. In 1974/1975 paleontologist Rodolfo Magín Casamiquela named the find as a new genus. The type species is ''Herbstosaurus pigmaeus''. The genus name honours Herbst and connects his name to Greek ''sauros'', "lizard", a usual element in the name of dinosaurs — Casamiquela assumed the new genus was a theropod dinosaur. The specific name is derived from Greek ''pygmaios'', "dwarf": it was thought the form presented a small ''Compsognathus''-like coelurosaurian belonging to the Coeluridae and one of the smallest dinosaurs then known. Description The holotype is CTES-P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurolimnornis
''Eurolimnornis'' is the name given to a monotypic genus of pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous. The only known species ''E. corneti'' probably was originally identified as a primitive but essentially modern bird (or even as an early neognathe ancestral to the grebes), although alternative theories later suggested that it was a non-avialan theropod or pterosaur.Benton, M. J.; Cook, E.; Grigorescu, D.; Popa, E. & Tallódi, E. (1997): Dinosaurs and other tetrapods in an Early Cretaceous bauxite-filled fissure, northwestern Romania. ''Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology'' 130: 275-292.PDF fulltext The identification as a pterosaur was supported by a re-evaluation of the fossil remains published in 2012. The holotype and only material known to date ( MTCO-P 7896) is a distal fragment of the right humerus, which was at first ascribed to the same species as the specimen of '' Palaeocursornis corneti'', a possible synonym also originally identified as a bird.Bock, Walter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dermodactylus
''Dermodactylus'' (meaning "skin finger", from Greek ''derma'' and ''daktylos'', in reference to pterosaur wings being skin membranes supported by the ring fingers) was a genus of pterodactyloid (general term for "short-tailed" pterosaur) pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, United States. It is based on a single partial bone, from the hand. History and classification ''Dermodactylus'' is based on a single distal right fourth metacarpal found by Samuel Wendell Williston at Como Bluff, Wyoming in 1878; this bone is currently housed in the collections of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut (YPM 2020YPM=Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, Connecticut.). This bone constituted at the time the oldest pterosaur remains found, recognized, and described from North America. Othniel Charles Marsh first named it as a species of ''Pterodactylus'': ''P. montanus'', the specific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
