extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of early
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 from the
Late Triassic
The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch ...
(Late
Carnian
The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage of the Upper Triassic Series (or earliest age of the Late Triassic Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227 million years ago (Ma). The Carnian is preceded by the Ladinian and is followed by t ...
to Late
Rhaetian
The Rhaetian is the latest age of the Triassic Period (in geochronology) or the uppermost stage of the Triassic System (in chronostratigraphy). It was preceded by the Norian and succeeded by the Hettangian (the lowermost stage or earliest age ...
age) of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.Barrett, P. M., Butler, R. J., Edwards, N. P., & Milner, A. R. (2008). Pterosaur distribution in time and space: an atlas. ''Zitteliana'', 61-107 /ref> It was named by
Peter Wellnhofer
Peter Wellnhofer (born Munich, 1936) is a German paleontologist at the Bayerische Staatssammlung fur Paläontologie in Munich. He is best known for his work on the various fossil specimens of ''Archaeopteryx'' or "Urvogel", the first known bird. W ...
in
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...
to include ''
Eudimorphodon ranzii
''Eudimorphodon'' was a pterosaur that was discovered in 1973 by Mario Pandolfi in the town of Cene, Italy and described the same year by Rocco Zambelli. The nearly complete skeleton was retrieved from shale deposited during the Late Triassic (mi ...
''. Some
phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...
analyses suggested that Eudimorphodontidae is a
junior synonym
The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
* In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...
of Campylognathoididae,Kellner, A. W. A., (2003): Pterosaur phylogeny and comments on the evolutionary history of the group. pp. 105-137. — ''in'' Buffetaut, E. & Mazin, J.-M., (eds.): ''Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs''. Geological Society of London, Special Publications 217, London, 1-347Dalla Vecchia, F.M. (2009). "Anatomy and systematics of the pterosaur ''Carniadactylus'' (gen. n.) ''rosenfeldi'' (Dalla Vecchia, 1995)." ''Rivista Italiana de Paleontologia e Stratigrafia'', 115(2): 159-188. however more comprehensive analyses found Eudimorphodontidae to be basal to
Macronychoptera
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 6 ...
Breviquartossa
Novialoidea (meaning "new wings") is an extinct clade of macronychopteran pterosaurs that lived from the latest Early Jurassic to the latest Late Cretaceous (early Toarcian to late Maastrichtian ageBarrett, P. M., Butler, R. J., Edwards, N. P., & ...
Peteinosaurus
''Peteinosaurus'' ( ; meaning "winged lizard") was a prehistoric genus of pterosaur. It lived in the late Triassic period in the late Norian age (about 221 to 210 million years ago), and at a wingspan of around , was one of the smallest and earli ...
'', ''
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 ...
'' and ''
Caviramus
''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 sp ...
'', and three species of ''
Eudimorphodon
''Eudimorphodon'' was a pterosaur that was discovered in 1973 by Mario Pandolfi in the town of Cene, Italy and described the same year by Rocco Zambelli. The nearly complete skeleton was retrieved from shale deposited during the Late Triassic (mi ...
''), but they didn't defined the clade. Brian Andres (2010, in press) define Eudimorphodontidae and found ''
Peteinosaurus
''Peteinosaurus'' ( ; meaning "winged lizard") was a prehistoric genus of pterosaur. It lived in the late Triassic period in the late Norian age (about 221 to 210 million years ago), and at a wingspan of around , was one of the smallest and earli ...
'' to be most closely related to it. Furthermore, he found
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 ...
''Eudimorphodon'' clade (unlike Wang ''et al.'', 2009 and Dalla Vecchia, 2009), and defined two subfamilies within Eudimorphodontidae. The Eudimorphodontinae includes all taxa more closely related to ''Eudimorphodon ranzii'' than to ''
Raeticodactylus filisurensis
''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 ...
'' while the Raeticodactylinae includes all taxa more closely related to ''Raeticodactylus filisurensis'' than to ''Eudimorphodon ranzii''. More recently, ''Raeticodactylus'' and ''Caviramus'' were moved into their own 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 For ...
. The below cladogram follows that analysis.
In 2020 however, a study upheld by Matthew G. Baron about early pterosaur interrelationships found no evidence to support the existence of the clade
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 ...
(the clade of which eudimorphodontids might also belong to) as an early diverging clade within the Pterosauria. He additionally found no evidence to support a monophyletic Eudimorphodontidae, therefore, he sunk both ''
Arcticodactylus
''Arcticodactylus'' is a genus of basal pterosaur living during the Late Triassic in the area of present Greenland. Its only species was previously attributed to ''Eudimorphodon'', and its closest relatives may have been ''Eudimorphodon'' or ''A ...
'' and ''Carniadactylus'' within a clade he called
Caviramidae
Caviramidae is a group of basal pterosaurs. 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''.
The members o ...
, and found ''Eudimorphodon'' to be the sister taxon of the
Novialoidea
Novialoidea (meaning "new wings") is an extinct clade of macronychopteran pterosaurs that lived from the latest Early Jurassic to the latest Late Cretaceous (early Toarcian to late Maastrichtian ageBarrett, P. M., Butler, R. J., Edwards, N. P., & ...
.Matthew G. Baron (2020). "Testing pterosaur ingroup relationships through broader sampling of avemetatarsalian taxa and characters and a range of phylogenetic analysis techniques". PeerJ. 8: e9604. doi:10.7717/peerj.9604. PMC 7512134. .