Gallodactylidae

Last updated

Gallodactylidae
Temporal range:
Late Jurassic, 152–148.5  Ma
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Cycnorhamphus suevicus.jpg
Juvenile specimen of Cycnorhamphus suevicus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Pterosauria
Suborder: Pterodactyloidea
Clade: Ctenochasmatoidea
Family: Gallodactylidae
Fabre, 1974
Type species
Gallodactylus canjuersensis
Fabre, 1974
Subgroups

Gallodactylidae is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Gallodactylids differed from other related pterosaurs in several distinct features, including fewer than 50 teeth present only in the jaw tips, and rounded crests present on the rear portion of the skull and jaws but not near the ends of their snouts. At least some species possessed jaw flanges, possibly used to bissect hard-shelled prey. [2] [3]

Contents

History

Gallodactylidae was named to contain Gallodactylus (now usually considered a synonym of Cycnorhamphus ) and its closest relatives. Many subsequent studies, however, showed that Gallodactylus did not form a clade with any non-synonymous pterosaurs that were not themselves part of a different family, and so the name was often ignored. The name returned to common use with the discovery of Gladocephaloideus , a Chinese pterosaur species that shared many similarities with Cycnorhamphus. Among other features, the Gallodactylidae was distinguished by having teeth only in the front tip of the jaws. [4]

Classification

In 2006, Lü Junchang and colleagues named the clade Boreopteridae for the clade containing the common ancestor of Boreopterus and Feilongus and all its descendants, which the authors reclassified as close relatives of the ornithocheirids, though Feilongus had originally been considered a gallodactylid. [5] [6] Originally considered close relatives of the ornithocheirids, many of these supposed boreopterids have since been considered members of other groups of the pterodactyloid lineage. Boreopterus and Feilongus were found by Andres and colleagues in 2013 to be closely related to Cycnorhamphus, making them members of the Gallodactylidae as had been originally thought when Feilongus was discovered. [7] However, a revised version of Andres' analysis, which was updated to include the other supposed boreopterids among other changes, found that Boreopterus itself, and therefore the name Boreopteridae, was indeed a member of the ornithocheiroid clade. This analysis confirmed that Feilongus was in fact a ctenochasmatoid, but one closely related to Gnathosaurus rather than Gallodactylus. This study effectively reduced the membership of Gallodactylidae back to just Gallodactylus and Cycnorhamphus. [7]

Cladogram following the latest version of Andres' data set, published by Longrich, Martill, and Andres in 2018, highlighting the positions of several possible gallodactylids: [8]

Ctenochasmatoidea

In a 2014 study, Steven Vidovic and David Martill concluded that Pterodactylus scolopaciceps , usually considered a synonym of Diopecephalus and/or Pterodactylus , was not closely related to other Pterodactylus specimens. They placed it in the new genus Aerodactylus , which they found to be most closely related to Cynorhamphus. They initially named this clade Aurorazhdarchidae, and defined it as the most recent common ancestor of Aerodactylus scolopaciceps and Aurorazhdarcho micronyx, and all its descendants. [9] In follow-up studies, they found that this group is actually nested within the traditional grouping of Gallodactylidae. They proposed new, more restrictive definitions for both Gallodactylidae and Aurorazhdarchidae, and created another new clade, Aurorazhdarchia, with a definition equivalent to the old Aurorazhdarchidae. [10]

Cladogram following Vidovic and Martill, 2017, highlighting the positions of several possible gallodactylids: [10]

Ctenochasmatoidea

Related Research Articles

<i>Cearadactylus</i> Genus of anhanguerid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Cearadactylus is a genus of large anhanguerid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Romualdo Formation of Brazil, South America. Fossil remains of Cearadactylus dated back to the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous period, about 112 million years ago. The only known species is C. atrox, described and named in 1985 by Giuseppe Leonardi and Guido Borgomanero. The name refers to the Brazilian state Ceará, and combines this with Greek daktylos, "finger", a reference to the wing finger of pterosaurs. The Latin atrox means "frightful", a reference to the fearsome dentition of the species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pterodactyloidea</span> Suborder of monofenestratan pterosaurs

Pterodactyloidea is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs, and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles. They appeared during the middle Jurassic Period, and differ from the basal rhamphorhynchoids by their short tails and long wing metacarpals. The most advanced forms also lack teeth, and by the late Cretaceous, all known pterodactyloids were toothless. 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.

Boreopterus is a genus of boreopterid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Barremian-Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Dalian, Liaoning, China.

<i>Cycnorhamphus</i> Genus of gallodactylid pterosaur Late Jurassic

Cycnorhamphus is a genus of gallodactylid ctenochasmatoid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic period of France and Germany, about 152 million years ago. It is synonymous with the genus Gallodactylus.

<i>Diopecephalus</i> Genus of euctenochasmatian pterosaur from the Late Jurassic

Diopecephalus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Lower Tithonian of the Lithographic Limestone, Bavaria, Germany. The type and only species is D. kochi, although the name has been applied to Pterodactylus longicollum, with longicollum erroneously listed as the type species.

<i>Feilongus</i> Genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Feilongus is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Barremian–Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Beipiao, Liaoning, China.

<i>Lonchodectes</i> Genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous

Lonchodectes was a genus of lonchodectid pterosaur from several formations dating to the Turonian of England, mostly in the area around Kent. The species belonging to it had been assigned to Ornithocheirus until David Unwin's work of the 1990s and 2000s. Several potential species are known; most are based on scrappy remains, and have gone through several other generic assignments. The genus is part of the complex taxonomy issues surrounding Early Cretaceous pterosaurs from Brazil and England, such as Amblydectes, Anhanguera, Coloborhynchus, and Ornithocheirus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonchodectidae</span> Family of pteranodontoid pterosaurs

Lonchodectidae or Lonchodraconidae is a group of pterosaurs within the clade Pterodactyloidea. It has variously been considered to be within Ctenochasmatoidea, Azhdarchoidea and Pteranodontoidea. They are notable for their high, conical tooth sockets and raised alveolar margins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ornithocheiroidea</span> Clade of pterodactyloid pterosaurs

Ornithocheiroidea is a group of pterosaurs within the extinct suborder Pterodactyloidea. They were typically large pterosaurs that lived from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods, with fossil remains found all over the world except Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azhdarchoidea</span> Superfamily of ornithocheiroid pterosaurs

Azhdarchoidea is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea, more specifically within the group Ornithocheiroidea. Pterosaurs belonging to this group lived throughout the Early and Late Cretaceous periods, with one tentative member, Tendaguripterus, that lived in the Late Jurassic period. The largest azhdarchoids include members of the family Azhdarchidae, examples of these are Quetzalcoatlus, Hatzegopteryx, and Arambourgiania. The Azhdarchoidea has been recovered as either closely related to the Ctenochasmatoidea, as the sister taxon of the Pteranodontoidea within the Ornithocheiroidea, or within the Tapejaroidea, which in turn was also within the Ornithocheiroidea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ornithocheiridae</span> Family of ornithocheiran pterosaurs

Ornithocheiridae is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. These pterosaurs were among the last to possess teeth. Members that belong to this group lived from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods, around 140 to 90 million years ago.

<i>Zhenyuanopterus</i> Genus of boreopterid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Zhenyuanopterus is a genus of boreopterid pterosaur which is known from Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China. It contains one species, Zhenyuanopterus longirostris, which was first described and named by Lü Junchang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euctenochasmatia</span> Clade of archaeopterodactyloid pterosaurs

Euctenochasmatia is an extinct group of pterodactyloid pterosaurs. It was named by David Unwin in 2003 as the group that contains the most recent common ancestor of Pterodactylus and Ctenochasma, and all their descendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caelidracones</span> Clade of monofenestratan pterosaurs

The Caelidracones is a group of pterosaurs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boreopteridae</span> Family of pteranodontoid pterosaurs

Boreopteridae is a group of pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germanodactylidae</span> Family of pterodactyloid pterosaurs

Germanodactylidae is a controversial group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. It was first named by Yang Zhongjian in 1964, and given a formal phylogenetic definition in 2014 by Brian Andres, James Clark, and Xu Xing. They defined it as the least inclusive clade containing Germanodactylus cristatus and Normannognathus wellnhoferi, which they considered to be close relatives at the time. However, more recent studies by the same researchers have found that these pterosaurs may be only distantly related.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eupterodactyloidea</span> Infraorder of pterodactyloid pterosaurs

Eupterodactyloidea is an extinct group of pterodactyloid pterosaurs that existed from the latest Late Jurassic to the latest Late Cretaceous periods. Eupterodactyloids have been found on all continents except Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaeopterodactyloidea</span> Infraorder of pterodactyloid pterosaurs

Archaeopterodactyloidea is an extinct clade of pterodactyloid pterosaurs that lived from the middle Late Jurassic to the latest Early Cretaceous periods of Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. It was named by Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner in 1996 as the group that contains Germanodactylus, Pterodactylus, the Ctenochasmatidae and the Gallodactylidae. In 2003, Kellner defined the clade as a node-based taxon consisting of the last common ancestor of Pterodactylus, Ctenochasma and Gallodactylus and all its descendants. Although phylogenetic analyses that based on David Unwin's 2003 analysis do not recover monophyletic Archaeopterodactyloidea, phylogenetic analyses that based on Kellner's analyses, or the analyses of Brian Andres recover monophyletic Archaeopterodactyloidea at the base of the Pterodactyloidea.

<i>Ardeadactylus</i> Genus of ctenochasmatoid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic

Ardeadactylus is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatoid pterosaur known from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria, southern Germany. It contains a single species, Ardeadactylus longicollum, which was originally thought to be a species of Pterodactylus, as P. longicollum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ornithocheiromorpha</span> Clade of pteranodontoid pterosaurs

Ornithocheiromorpha is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Fossil remains of this group date back from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods, around 140 to 92.5 million years ago. Ornithocheiromorphs were discovered worldwide except Antarctica, though most genera were recovered in Europe, Asia and South America. They were the most diverse and successful pterosaurs during the Early Cretaceous, but throughout the Late Cretaceous they were replaced by pteranodontians and azhdarchoids. The Ornithocheiromorpha was defined in 2014 by Andres and colleagues, and they made Ornithocheiromorpha the most inclusive clade containing Ornithocheirus, but not Pteranodon.

References

  1. Hone, David W.E.; Lauer, René; Lauer, Bruce; Spindler, Frederik (2023-07-14). "Petrodactyle wellnhoferi gen. et sp. nov.: A new and large ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic of Germany". Palaeontologia Electronica: 26.2.a25. doi: 10.26879/1251 .
  2. Witton, Mark P. (2013), Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy
  3. Bennett, S. C. (2013). "The morphology and taxonomy of the pterosaur Cycnorhamphus". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 267: 23–41. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2012/0295.
  4. Lü Junchang; Ji Qiang; Wei Xuefang; Liu Yongqing (2012). "A new ctenochasmatoid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of western Liaoning, China". Cretaceous Research. 34: 26–30. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2011.09.010.
  5. Mark Witton, 2011
  6. Myers, Timothy S. (2010). "A new ornithocheirid pterosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Turonian) Eagle Ford Group of Texas" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (1): 280–287. doi:10.1080/02724630903413099. S2CID   130367018.
  7. 1 2 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.
  8. Longrich, N.R.; Martill, D.M.; Andres, B. (2018). "Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary". PLOS Biology. 16 (3): e2001663. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2001663 . PMC   5849296 . PMID   29534059.
  9. Vidovic, S. U.; Martill, D. M. (2014). "Pterodactylus scolopaciceps Meyer, 1860 (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from the Upper Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany: The Problem of Cryptic Pterosaur Taxa in Early Ontogeny". PLOS ONE. 9 (10): e110646. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110646 . PMC   4206445 . PMID   25337830.
  10. 1 2 Vidovic, S.U.; Martill, D.M. (2017). "The taxonomy and phylogeny of Diopecephalus kochi (Wagner, 1837) and "Germanodactylus rhamphastinus" (Wagner, 1851)". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 455: 125–147. doi:10.1144/SP455.12. S2CID   219204038.