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Ctenochasmatid
Ctenochasmatidae is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. They are characterized by their distinctive teeth, which are thought to have been used for filter-feeding. Ctenochasmatids lived from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous periods. The earliest known ctenochasmatid remains date to the Late Jurassic Kimmeridgian age. Previously, a fossil jaw recovered from the Middle Jurassic Stonesfield Slate formation in the United Kingdom, was considered the oldest known. This specimen supposedly represented a member of the family Ctenochasmatidae,Buffetaut, E. and Jeffrey, P. (2012). "A ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Stonesfield Slate (Bathonian, Middle Jurassic) of Oxfordshire, England." ''Geological Magazine'', (advance online publication) though further examination suggested it actually belonged to a teleosaurid stem-crocodilian instead of a pterosaur. Classification Below is cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gegepterus
''Gegepterus'' is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of what is now the Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China. Only one species is known, ''G. changi''. History and etymology The genus was named in 2007 by Wang Xiaolin, Alexander Kellner, Zhou Zhonge and Diogenes de Almeida Campos. The type species is ''Gegepterus changi''. The generic name is derived from Manchu ''ge ge'', the title of a princess, in reference to the dainty gracility of the specimen, and a Latinized Greek ''pteron'', "wing". The specific name honors female paleontologist Chang Meemann, who over the years established a cordial relationship between the Chinese and Brazilian authors. In 2008 Wang emended the epithet to ''changae'', but such changes are no longer allowed by the ICZN. It is known from two specimens. The first is holotype IVPP V 11981, which was in 2001 found in grey shales from the lower part of the formation (estimated at 125 million years old), near the city of B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liaodactylus
''Liaodactylus'' is a genus of filter-feeding ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Jurassic of China. The genus contains one species, ''L. primus'', described by Zhou ''et al.'' in 2017. As an adaptation to filter-feeding, ''Liaodactylus'' had approximately 150 long, comb-like teeth packed closely together. It is both the earliest known ctenochasmatid and the first filter-feeding pterosaur from the Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation. Later and more specialized ctenochasmatids differ from ''Liaodactylus'' in having longer snouts, smaller openings (or fenestrae) in the skull, and more teeth. Within the Ctenochasmatidae, ''Liaodactylus'' was most closely related to the European ''Ctenochasma''. Discovery and naming There is one specimen of ''Liaodactylus'' known, namely the holotype PMOL-AP00031, which is stored at the Palaeontological Museum of Liaoning. It consists of a complete skull and lower jaws, along with the first two cervical vertebrae. It originates from outcrops located about w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eosipterus
''Eosipterus'' is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of Liaoning, China. Fossil remains of ''Eosipterus'' dated back to the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous, 124.6 million years ago. History and etymology The genus was named in 1997 by Ji Shu'an and Ji Qiang. The type species is ''Eosipterus yangi''. The genus name is derived from Greek ''eos'', "dawn" and Greek ''pteron'', "wing" with a Latin ending; and a grammar error: normally the combination would have resulted in "eopterus". The "dawn" element refers to its age but also to China being "in the east". The specific name honours paleontologist Yang Daihuan. The genus is based on the holotype specimen, GMV2117, found near Jinggangshan in western Liaoning Province, in the Yixian Formation. It was the first pterosaur discovered in that region. It consists of a partial crushed skeleton of a subadult individual on a slab, lacking skull and neck. Most vertebrae have been severely dama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plataleorhynchus
''Plataleorhynchus'' is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous periods ( Tithonian to Berriasian stages) of what is now the Purbeck Limestone of Dorset, England. History and etymology The genus was named in 1995 by Stafford Howse and Andrew Milner. The type species is ''Plataleorhynchus streptophorodon''. The genus name is derived from ''Platalea'', the spoonbill, and Greek , "snout", in reference to the distinctive form of the front of the skull. The specific name is derived from Greek , "collared", and , "tooth", referring to the tooth form. ''Plataleorhynchus'' is based on holotype NHML R.11957 (earlier BMNH R.11957), an incomplete anterior upper jaw with teeth found in a chalkstone quarry near Langton Matravers. The fossil is present on a plate; its underside is visible. This jaw is notable because it expands to form a circular, spatula-like shape at the front, holding 22 narrow teeth that point sideways. Forty oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huanhepterus
''Huanhepterus'' is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of what is now Qingyang, Gansu, China. History The genus was named by Dong Zhiming in 1982. The type species is ''Huanhepterus quingyangensis''. The genus name refers to the Huang Jian (not the Yellow River or "Huang He", but a smaller tributary of the Jinghe River in Gansu), and combines it with a Latinized Greek ''pteron'', "wing". The specific name refers to Qinyang County. ''Huanhepterus'' is based on the holotype specimen, IVPP V9070, a partial articulated skeleton consisting mostly of impressions of the left half of the body and the beak-end of the skull. The fossil was in May 1978 found in a quarry operated by the Sanshilipu-commune, when an explosion exposed a vertebra. Its force obliterated the right half of the specimen. IVPP V9070 hails from the Early Cretaceous-age Huachihuanhe Formation of the Zhidan Group. Description ''Huanhepterus'' had a long, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beipiaopterus
''Beipiaopterus'' is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period (Aptian stage) of what is now the Yixian Formation of the China. The genus was named in 2003 by Lü Junchang. The generic name is derived from Beipiao City in Liaoning Province and a Latinized Greek ''pteron'', "wing". The specific epithet honors paleontologist Professor Chen Peiji. The type and only species is based on holotype BPM 0002, a crushed partial skeleton of a subadult individual on a slab, missing the skull. It includes four cervical, fourteen dorsal, three sacral and nine caudal vertebrae, a complete left wing and two hind limbs. Remains of the soft parts have been preserved, including partial wing membranes, a membrane attached to the tibia, a "mane" on the neck and webbing of the feet. It had a wingspan of , and the animal itself had a length of about , however, this is only if the skull had the same length as the remainder of the body: for the neck, ten centimetres for the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pterofiltrus
''Pterofiltrus'' is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of western Liaoning, China. Discovery and naming ''Pterofiltrus'' was named by Jiang Shunxing and Wang Xiaolin in 2011. The type species is ''Pterofiltrus qiui''. The generic name is derived from Greek πτερόν, ''pteron'', "wing", and a Mediaeval Latin ''filtrum'', "felt" or "filter", in reference to the dentition. The specific name honours Professor Qiu Zhanxiang. The holotype of ''Pterofiltrus'', IVPP V12339, was early 21st century discovered at Zhangjiagou in Liaoning Province in a layer of the Jianshangou Beds of the lower Yixian Formation dating from the early Aptian, about 125 million years old. It consists of a disarticulated skull compressed on a slab together with two rami of a hyoid and the first two neck vertebrae. Description The skull of ''Pterofiltrus'' is very elongated, with an estimated length of 208 millimetres. It has a smooth, slightly concave, upper profile lacking any b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathayopterus
''Cathayopterus'' is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous-age Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China. The name means "China wing", using the word "Cathay" as an old alternative name for China. 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 ''C. grabaui'', described in 2006 by Wang Xiaolin and Zhou Zhongh. It is a member of the Ctenochasmatidae, a clade of mostly filter feeding pterosaurs from the Jurassic and early Cretaceous. Description ''Cathayopterus'' is only known from a skull preserved in dorsal view, which shows teeth splaying outwards at the tip of the rostrum, similar to '' Ctenochasma''. The skull is incomplete, with the left side being damaged. Classification The cladogram below follows a phylogenetic analy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pterodaustro
''Pterodaustro'' is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid pterosaur from South America. Its fossil remains dated back to the Early Cretaceous period, about 105 million years ago. The most distinctive characteristic that separates ''Pterodaustro'' from other ctenochasmatids is its bristle-like teeth, a feature not seen in any other pterosaur. Discovery and naming The first fossils, among them the holotype PVL 2571, a thigh bone, were in the late sixties discovered by Bonaparte in the Lagarcito Formation, situated in the San Luis Province of Argentina, and dating from the Albian. The genus has later also been found in Chile in the Santa Ana Formation. At the Argentine site, the just large "Loma del ''Pterodaustro''", since then, during several expeditions, over 750 ''Pterodaustro'' specimens have been collected, 288 of them having been catalogued until 2008. This makes the species one of the best known pterosaurs, with examples from all growth stages, from egg to adult. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pterodactyloidea
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] |
Ardeadactylus
''Ardeadactylus'' (from ''Ardea'' – meaning "heron", and also a name of a genus of herons – and ''dactylus'', meaning "finger") is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatoid pterosaur known from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria, southern Germany. It contains a single species, ''Ardeadactylus longicollum'', which was originally thought to be a species of ''Pterodactylus'', as ''P. longicollum''. History Only two specimens of ''Ardeadactylus'' are known to exist currently: SMNS 56603 (earlier SMNS 5802) found in 1874, a specimen from Nusplingen initially thought to belong to the species '' Pterodactylus suevicus'' (currently ''Cycnorhamphus''), and the neotype of the species, JME-SOS 2428, a specimen held at Jura Museum in Eichstätt. Other known specimens, including the holotype designated by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer when he named the type species ''Pterodactylus longicollum'' in 1854,Meyer, C.E.H. von, 1854, "Mittheilungen an Professor Bronn: Anthracotheri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forfexopterus
''Forfexopterus'' (meaning "scissor wings") is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in China. It contains a single species, ''F. jeholensis'', named from a mostly complete skeleton by Shunxing Jiang and colleagues in 2016. A second specimen, consisting of a wing, was described in 2020. While the first specimen is larger, it shows signs of being less mature than the second specimen, indicating that the developmental trajectories of ''Forfexopterus'' were variable. Like other ctenochasmatids, ''Forfexopterus'' had a long, low skull filled with many slender teeth; unlike other members of the group, however, it did not have a spatula-shaped snout tip or crests, and its teeth were more curved. A single characteristic distinguishes ''Forfexopterus'' from all other members of the wider group Archaeopterodactyloidea: of the four phalanx bones in its wing finger, the first was shorter than the second but longer than the third. Discovery and nami ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
