Pterodactyloidea

Pterodactyloids
Temporal range:
Middle Jurassic – Late Cretaceous, Possible Bathonian record[1]
Several members of Pterodactyloidea (top to bottom): Pteranodon, Pterodaustro, the skulls of several pterosaurs (Guidraco, Anhanguera, Tupandactylus, and an unnamed dsungaripterid), Quetzalcoatlus, Aerodactylus, and Maaradactylus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: †Pterosauria
Clade: †Pterodactyliformes
Suborder: †
Plieninger, 1901
Subgroups
  • †Diopecephalus
  • †Kryptodrakon?
  • †Ningchengopterus (incertae sedis)
  • †Pangupterus (incertae sedis)
  • †Wenupteryx (incertae sedis)
  • †Archaeopterodactyloidea
  • †Eupterodactyloidea Bennett, 1994
    • †Herbstosaurus
    • †Azhdarchoidea
    • †Dsungaripteridae
    • †Germanodactylidae?
    • †Pteranodontoidea
Synonyms

Pterodactyloidea (/ˌtɛrəˈdækt͡ɬɔɪdɪːə/; derived from the Greek words πτερόν (pterón, for usual ptéryx) "wing", and δάκτυλος (dáktylos) "finger")[2] is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs ("wing lizards"), and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles. They appeared during the middle Jurassic Period, and differ from the basal (though paraphyletic) rhamphorhynchoids by their short tails and long wing metacarpals (hand bones). The most advanced forms also lack teeth, and by the late Cretaceous, all known pterodactyloids were toothless.[3] Many species had well-developed crests on the skull, a form of display taken to extremes in giant-crested forms like Nyctosaurus and Tupandactylus. Pterodactyloids were the last surviving pterosaurs when the order became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, together with the non-avian dinosaurs and most marine reptiles.

"Pterodactyl" is also a common term for pterodactyloid pterosaurs, though it can also be used to refer to Pterodactylus specifically. Well-known examples of pterodactyloids include Pterodactylus, Pteranodon, and Quetzalcoatlus.

In 2014, fossils from the Shishugou Formation of China were classified as the most basal pterodactyloid yet found, Kryptodrakon. At a minimum age of about 161 my, it is about 5 million years older than the oldest previously known confirmed specimens.[4] Some later studies have found Kryptodrakon to be a non-pterodactyloid.[5] Previously, a fossil jaw recovered from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Stonesfield Slate formation was considered the oldest known, but further examination suggested it belonged to a teleosaurid instead of a pterosaur.[4][6] In 2018 Michael O'Sullivan and David Martill described a partial synsacrum from the Stonesfield Slate identified as possibly pterodactyloid, though they noted it could also be a wukongopterid. If correctly identified, it would be the oldest pterodactyloid fossil known.[7] In 2022 Martill and colleagues described a likely ctenochasmatid tooth, also from Stonesfield.[1]

  1. ^ a b Martill, David M.; Steel, Lorna; Smith, Roy E. (2022). "Did William Smith (1769–1839), the father of biostratigraphy, discover a Jurassic pterosaur tooth?". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 133 (3): 250–255. doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2022.05.001.
  2. ^ Colbert, Edwin H. (Edwin Harris); Knight, Charles Robert (1951). The dinosaur book: the ruling reptiles and their relatives. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 153.
  3. ^ Review of taxonomy, geographic distribution, and paleoenvironments of Azhdarchidae (Pterosauria) – ZooKeys
  4. ^ a b Andres, B.; Clark, J.; Xu, X. (2014). "The Earliest Pterodactyloid and the Origin of the Group". Current Biology. 24 (9): 1011–6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.030. PMID 24768054.
  5. ^ Martin-Silverstone, Elizabeth; Unwin, David M.; Cuff, Andrew R.; Brown, Emily E.; Allington-Jones, Lu; Barrett, Paul M. (2024-02-05). "A new pterosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Skye, Scotland and the early diversification of flying reptiles". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 43 (4). doi:10.1080/02724634.2023.2298741. ISSN 0272-4634.
  6. ^ Buffetaut, E. and Jeffrey, P. (2012). "A ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Stonesfield Slate (Bathonian, Middle Jurassic) of Oxfordshire, England." Geological Magazine, (advance online publication) doi:10.1017/S0016756811001154
  7. ^ Michael O’Sullivan; David M. Martill (2018). "Pterosauria of the Great Oolite Group (Bathonian, Middle Jurassic) of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, England". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. Online edition. doi:10.4202/app.00490.2018.
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