Huaxiadraco Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, | |
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Holotype specimen | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Order: | † Pterosauria |
Suborder: | † Pterodactyloidea |
Family: | † Tapejaridae |
Subfamily: | † Sinopterinae |
Genus: | † Huaxiadraco Pêgas et al., 2023 |
Type species | |
†Huaxiapterus corollatus Lü et al., 2006 | |
Synonyms | |
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Huaxiadraco (meaning "Hua Xia [China] dragon") is a genus of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. It is the third valid genus of tapejarid from the Jehol Biota, after Sinopterus and Eopteranodon . It contains one species, Huaxiadraco corollatus, originally assigned to the defunct genus Huaxiapterus . [1]
Huaxiadraco is based on the holotype ZMNH M8131, a nearly complete skeleton. It was originally assigned to the genus Huaxiapterus by Lü Junchang and colleagues in 2006, under the binomial name Huaxiapterus corollatus. [2] Lü et al. also named another species, Huaxiapterus benxiensis, a year later. [3] However, analyses have since found that these species are only distantly related to Huaxiapterus jii, [4] the type species of Huaxiapterus, and thus require a new genus name. [5] A 2023 review of Chinese tapejarids by Pêgas et al. have confirmed these analyses, finding most of them (including Huaxipterus jii) to belong to the coeval Sinopterus dongi , although corollatus was found to belong to a distinct genus. They thus created Huaxiadraco for corollatus, synonymized benxiensis with it, and referred specimens D2525 (previously considered Sinopterus), BMPC 103, 104, and 105 to it. [1]
Based on their reassessment of the Sinopterus species-complex, Pêgas et al. modified their working dataset, previously used in the redescription of Aerotitan. [6] Their cladogram is shown below: [1]