(Archosauria: Pterosauria) from the Romualdo Formation (Aptian/Albian), is herein described. Other taxa previously referred as “ornithocheirids” are discussed in light of the revised taxonomy.Ī new species of pterosaur, Maaradactylus kellneri gen. Therefore, it is proposed that Ornithocheiridae should be constricted to its type species and thus is redundant. (more or less equivalent to Lonchodectidae sensu Unwin 2001) is a monophyletic entity, but its exact phylogenetic position remains uncertain, as is the case of Ornithocheirus simus. The anhanguerian ‘Cearadactylus’ ligabuei belongs to a different genus than Cearadactylus atrox. A cladistic analysis demonstrates that Anhangueridae lies within a newly recognized clade, here named Anhangueria, which also includes the genera Cearadactylus, Brasileodactylus, Ludodactylus, and Camposipterus. n., but additional genera are probably present, as indicated by the use of single quotation marks throughout the text. These species are referred in the genera Ornithocheirus, Lonchodraco gen. n., ‘Ornithocheirus’ polyodon, ‘Ornithocheirus’ platystomus, ‘Pterodactylus’ daviesii, and ‘Ornithocheirus’ denticulatus. n., Coloborhynchus clavirostris, ‘Ornithocheirus’ capito, Camposipterus nasutus comb. Fourteen species are considered valid, and diagnoses are provided to all of them: Ornithocheirus simus, Lonchodraco giganteus comb. Taxonomic review of more than 30 species known from fragmentary remains showed that 16 of them are undiagnosable (nomina dubia): Palaeornis cliftii, Cimoliornis diomedeus, Pterodactylus compressirostris, Pterodactylus fittoni, Pterodactylus woodwardi, Ornithocheirus brachyrhinus, Ornithocheirus carteri, Ornithocheirus crassidens, Ornithocheirus dentatus, Ornithocheirus enchorhynchus, Ornithocheirus eurygnathus, Ornithocheirus oxyrhinus, Ornithocheirus scaphorhynchus, Ornithocheirus tenuirostris, Ornithocheirus xyphorhynchus, and Pterodactylus sagittirostris. Investigation of the primary literature confirmed that Criorhynchus should be considered an objective junior synonym of Ornithocheirus. Here, the species from the Cretaceous of England that, at some point, were referred in Ornithocheirus, are reviewed. Ornithocheiridae is still a wastebasket for fragmentary taxa, and some nomenclatural issues are still a problem. Over a decade after the last major review of the Cambridge Greensand pterosaurs, their systematics remains one of the most disputed points in pterosaur taxonomy. Phylogenetic comparative methods support this reconstruction by means of a significant correlation be- tween wing shape and environment also found in modern flying vertebrates, indicating that pterosaurs lived in or were at least adapted to the environments in which they were preserved. Phylogenetic analysis confirms this species as the basal- most pterodactyloid and reconstructs a terrestrial origin and a predominantly terrestrial history for the Pterodacty- loidea. nov., from the terres- trial Middle-Upper Jurassic boundary of Northwest China. We report here the earliest pterosaur with the diagnostic elongate metacarpus of the Pterodactyloidea, Kryptodrakon progenitor, gen. However, little evidence has been available to test this hypothesis, and it has not been supported by previous phylogenies or early pterodac- tyloid discoveries. The sudden appearance and large suite of morphological features of this group were suggested to be the result of it originating in terrestrial environments, where the pterosaur fossil record has traditionally been poor, and its many features suggested to be adapta- tions to those environments. The pterosaurs were a diverse group of Mesozoic flying rep- tiles that underwent a body plan reorganization, adaptive ra- diation, and replacement of earlier forms midway through their long history, resulting in the origin of the Pterodacty- loidea, a highly specialized clade containing the largest flying organisms.
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