Ornithocheiridae

Classification

The family Anhanguerids has had a controversial and very confusing taxonomic history; paleontologists who have studied this group seem to have had a different opinion on the composition of anhanguerid taxonomy. The term Anhangueridae was coined by Diogenes de Almeida Campos and Kellner in 1985 to refer to pterosaurs that belong in this family. In 2001, however, Unwin argued that the name Ornithocheiridae refers to an identical group, and should have nomenclatural priority. He therefore considered Anhangueridae a junior synonym of Ornithocheiridae in his study of pterosaur phylogeny in 2003. However, in many recent studies, Anhangueridae is recovered as a separate and distinct family from Ornithocheiridae, each containing different genera. The original term Ornithocheirae by Seeley had been redefined as the least inclusive clade containing Anhanguera blittersdorffi and Ornithocheirus simus, therefore it is recovered as a larger group comprising the families Anhangueridae and Ornithocheiridae in recent analysis.