''Liaoningopterus'', sometimes misspelled as "Liaoningopteryx", was a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of anhanguerid pterodactyloid

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 ...

from the

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is preceded ...

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

-age

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eight ...

Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang,

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

, China. The genus was named in 2003 by Wang Xiaolin and Zhou Zhonghe. 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 ''Liaoningopterus gui''. The genus name is derived from

and a Latinized Greek ''pteron'', "wing". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honors Professor Gu Zhiwei, an

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

specialist who has pioneered the study of the Jehol Biota.

Description

The genus is based on

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

IVPP V-13291, a crushed partial skull and skeleton including the jaws,

teeth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tear ...

, a

cervical In anatomy, cervical is an adjective that has two meanings: # of or pertaining to any neck. # of or pertaining to the female cervix: i.e., the ''neck'' of the uterus. *Commonly used medical phrases involving the neck are **cervical collar **cervic ...

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

, and bones of the

finger A finger is a limb of the body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of most of the Tetrapods, so also with humans and other primates. Most land vertebrates have five fingers ( Pentadactyly). Chambers ...

supporting the wing. It was a large pterosaur with skull alone estimated at long, bearing low crests close to the tip of the beak on both lower and upper jaws. The snout crest was long, was symmetrical in form and had a maximum height of . The edge of the upper jaw was very straight. The teeth were only found at the

anterior Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

end of the jaws. They were elongated but robust, generally increasing in size from the back to the front. The fourth tooth in the upper jaw is with a length of , the largest known for any pterosaur. It is exceptional in size compared to the other teeth of ''Liaoningopterus''. Meanwhile, the longest tooth in the lower jaw of ''Liaoningopterus'' has a length of . Tooth length in the specimen is very variable, which the authors explained by the presence of recently erupted replacement teeth. There were twenty pairs of teeth in the upper jaws and thirteen or fourteen pairs in the lower jaws. The preserved cervical vertebra has a centrum length of and a centrum height of . From the wing bones pieces of the first phalanx can be recognized which had an estimated total length of about . The authors described ''Liaoningopterus'' as being probably a

piscivore A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that eats primarily fish. The name ''piscivore'' is derived . Piscivore is equivalent to the Greek-derived word ichthyophage, both of which mean "fish eater". Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evoluti ...

, due to the long, pointed snout.Wang X.-L. and Zhou Z.-H. (2003). Two new pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Western Liaoning, China. ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica'' 41(1):34-41. The size is estimated at in wingspan and in body mass.

Classification

Wang classified ''Liaoningopterus'' as a member of the Anhangueridae, mainly because of the crests. This opinion was restated by him in 2005.Xiaolin Wang, Kellner, A.W.A., Zhonghe Zhou, and de Almeida Campos, D. (2005). Pterosaur diversity and faunal turnover in Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems in China. ''Nature'' 437:875-879. In 2006 Lü Junchang published a cladistic analysis showing ''Liaoningopterus'' to be a basal member of the Anhangueridae; in 2008 an analysis by

Ji Qiang Ji or JI may refer to: Names and titles * Ji (surname), the pinyin romanization of a number of distinct Chinese surnames * Ji (Korean name), a Korean surname and element in given names (including lists of people with the name) * -ji, an honorific ...

had ''Liaoningopterus'' in a trichotomy with ''

Anhanguera Anhanguera may refer to: People * Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva (1672–1740), a bandeirante Places in Brazil * Anhanguera, Goiás, a municipality in the state of Goiás * Anhanguera (district of São Paulo), a district in São Paulo * Parque Anhangue ...

'' and '' Tropeognathus''.Andres, B. and Ji Q., (2008), "A new pterosaur from the Liaoning Province of China, the phylogeny of Pterodactyloidea, and convergence in their cervical vertebrae", ''Palaeontology'' 51(2): 453–469 Below is a cladogram showing the phylogenetic placement of this genus within

Ornithocheirae Ornithocheirae is an extinct clade of pteranodontoid pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous to the Late Cretaceous (Valanginian to Turonian stages) of Asia, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by Harry Seeley in 1870 as a family ...

from Andres and Myers (2013).

References

External links

''Liaoningopterus''
in The Pterosauria {{Portal bar, Paleontology, Cretaceous, China Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Asia Pteranodontoids Fossil taxa described in 2003 Jiufotang fauna Taxa named by Zhou Zhonghe

Description

Classification

See also

References

External links