Pteranodontia is an extinct group of
ornithocheiroid
Ornithocheiroidea (or ornithocheiroids) is a group of pterosaurs within the extinct suborder Pterodactyloidea. They were typically large pterosaurs that lived from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods (Valanginian to Maastrichtian stages), with fo ...
pterodactyloid pterosaurs that lived during the
Late Cretaceous period (
Coniacian
The Coniacian is an age or stage in the geologic timescale. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series and spans the time between 89.8 ± 1 Ma and 86.3 ± 0.7 Ma (million years ago). The Coniacian is preceded by t ...
to
Maastrichtian stages) of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
and
Africa.
They were some of the most advanced pterosaurs, and possessed highly specialized cranial crests that may have served as
sexual attraction, with males having a much larger crest.
Classification
Pteranodontia was originally named by Marsh in 1876. In 2003, it was given a
phylogenetic definition by David Unwin as the common ancestor of ''
Pteranodon
''Pteranodon'' (); from Ancient Greek (''pteron'', "wing") and (''anodon'', "toothless") is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with ''P. longiceps'' having a wingspan of . They lived during the late Cr ...
'' and ''
Nyctosaurus'' plus all its descendants. Though Marsh had originally named this group based on the shared absence of teeth in those species, most analyses show that all of the traditional "ornithocheiroid" pterosaurs are also members of this clade.
Below is a
cladogram showing the phylogenetic placement of this group from Andres and Myers (2013).
In 2018, Longrich, Martill, and Andres revisited the classification, and made a different phylogenetic analysis. In the analysis, they followed Marsh's original classification, in which Pteranodontia is restricted to the families
Pteranodontidae and
Nyctosauridae. They also replaced Pteranodontia with
Pteranodontoidea as the more inclusive group.
[Longrich, N.R., Martill, D.M., and Andres, B. (2018)]
Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.
''PLoS Biology'', 16(3): e2001663.
Paleobiology
Locomotion
Similar to other pterosaurs, pteranodontian are considered to have been skilled fliers as well as adept at moving on the ground. Evidence from footprints shows that most pterosaurs did not sprawl their limbs to a large degree, as in modern reptiles, but rather held the limbs relatively erect when walking, like
dinosaurs. Footprints of pteranodontians are still unknown, but it is likely that they also walked erect.
Among pterosaurs, pteranodontians had unusually uneven limb proportions, with the forelimbs much larger and longer than the hind limbs. This would likely have required them to use unique modes of locomotion when on the ground compared to other pterosaurs. Most pteranodontians like ''Pteranodon'' flew like modern day albatrosses, which consists of flying very long distances and rarely flapping.
[Habib, M. (2011).]
Dinosaur Revolution: ''Anhanguera''.
''H2VP: Paleobiomechanics''. Weblog entry, 20-SEP-2011. Accessed 28-SEP-2011: http://h2vp.blogspot.com/2011/09/dinosaur-revolution-anhanguera.html
"Wyomingopteryx"
The name "Wyomingopteryx" appears in a painting of Morrison prehistoric animals by
Robert Bakker. However, this binomen is a ''
nomen nudum
In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate descr ...
'', and it is possible that Bakker may have intended to coin "Wyomingopteryx" for the ''Istiodactylus''-like specimen TATE 5999 because that specimen is found in Wyoming.
[Bakker, R.T. (1998). "Dinosaur mid-life crisis: the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition in Wyoming and Colorado". In Lucas, Spencer G.; Kirkland, James I.; Estep, J.W. Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems 14. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. pp. 67–77.]
References
{{Portalbar, Paleontology, Cretaceous
Barremian first appearances
Campanian extinctions