Caviramidae is a group of basal

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...

s. It was erected by paleontologist Matthew G. Baron in 2020. It was defined as the least inclusive clade that includes '' Arcticodactylus cromptonellus'' and ''

Caviramus schesaplanensis ''Caviramus'' is a genus of caviramid pterosaur from the Late Triassic (early Rhaetian-age) lower Kössen Formation of the Northern Calcareous Alps of Switzerland. The genus was in 2006 named by Nadia Fröbisch and Jörg Fröbisch. The type ...

''. The members of Caviramidae are also considered to belong to either the family

Eudimorphodontidae Eudimorphodontidae is an extinct family of early pterosaurs from the Late Triassic (Late Carnian to Late Rhaetian age) of Europe.Barrett, P. M., Butler, R. J., Edwards, N. P., & Milner, A. R. (2008). Pterosaur distribution in time and space: an a ...

(''Arcticodactylus'' and ''

Carniadactylus ''Carniadactylus'' is a genus of pterosaur which existed in Europe during the Late Triassic period (late Carnian or early Norian, about 228 million years agoBarrett, P. M., Butler, R. J., Edwards, N. P., & Milner, A. R. (2008). Pterosaur distribu ...

''), the family

Raeticodactylidae Raeticodactylidae is a family of eudimorphodontoid eopterosaurian pterosaurs that lived in Switzerland during the Late Triassic. The family includes '' Caviramus'', and the type genus '' Raeticodactylus'', which are both known from the Kössen F ...

(''Caviramus'' and ''

Raeticodactylus ''Raeticodactylus'' is a genus of non-pterodactyloid pterosaur from the late Norian-early Rhaetian-age Upper Triassic lower Kössen Formation of the central Austroalpine of Grisons, Switzerland. It is known from holotype BNM 14524, a single dis ...

''), or just basal

eopterosauria Eopterosauria is a group of basal pterosaurs from the Triassic, which form their own clade. The term was first used in Andres ''et al.'' (2014) to include ''Preondactylus'', ''Austriadactylus'', ''Peteinosaurus'' and Eudimorphodontidae. Inside th ...

ns (''

Austriadraco ''Austriadraco'' is a genus of pterosaur living during the Late Triassic in the area of present Austria. Its only species—''Austriadraco dallavecchiai''—was previously attributed to ''Eudimorphodon'', and its closest relatives may have been ' ...

'' and '' Seazzadactylus''). However, Baron, the author of Caviramidae, concluded in his analyses that both Eopterosauria and Eudimorphodontidae are not

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

groups, therefore he created the family Caviramidae to contain most of the eudimorphodontids and basal eopterosaurians. Additionally, Baron included the clade Austriadraconidae as a subgroup within the Caviramidae to include three genera: ''Arcticodactylus'', ''Austriadraco'', and ''Seazzadactylus''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q105360070 Pterosaurs