Pteranodontia

Pteranodontians Temporal range: Turonian–Maastrichtian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skull specimen (AMNH 7515) of the pteranodontid Pteranodon longiceps
Skull cast of the nyctosaurid Nyctosaurus gracilis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	† Pterosauria
Suborder:	† Pterodactyloidea
Clade:	† Pteranodontoidea
Clade:	† Pteranodontia Marsh, 1887
Subgroups
† Pteranodontidae †Nyctosauromorpha Alamodactylus Cretornis †Aponyctosauria Alcione Epapatelo Simurghia Nyctosauridae
Synonyms
Euornithocheira Unwin, 2003

Pteranodontia is an extinct group of ornithocheiroid pterodactyloid pterosaurs. It lived during the Late Cretaceous (Turonian to Maastrichtian stages) of North America, South America, Europe and Africa. ^[1] They were some of the most advanced pterosaurs, and possessed highly specialized cranial crests that may have served as sexual attraction, with males having a much larger crest.

Classification

Pteranodontia was originally named by Marsh in 1876. In 2003, it was given a phylogenetic definition by David Unwin as the common ancestor of Pteranodon and Nyctosaurus plus all its descendants. Though Marsh had originally named this group based on the shared absence of teeth in those species, most analyses show that all of the traditional "ornithocheiroid" pterosaurs are also members of this clade.

Below is a cladogram showing the phylogenetic placement of this group from Andres and Myers (2013). ^[2]

Pteranodontia

Nyctosauridae Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis "Nyctosaurus" lamegoi Nyctosaurus gracilis Alamodactylus byrdi Pteranodontoidea Pteranodon longiceps Pteranodon sternbergi Istiodactylidae Longchengpterus zhaoi Nurhachius ignaciobritoi Liaoxipterus brachyognathus Istiodactylus latidens Istiodactylus sinensis Lonchodectes compressirostris Aetodactylus halli Cearadactylus atrox Brasileodactylus araripensis Ludodactylus sibbicki Ornithocheirae Anhangueridae Liaoningopterus gui Anhanguera araripensis Anhanguera blittersdorffi Anhanguera piscator Anhanguera santanae Ornithocheiridae Tropeognathus mesembrinus Ornithocheirus simus Coloborhynchus clavirostris Coloborhynchus wadleighi

In 2018, Longrich, Martill, and Andres revisited the classification and proposed a different hypothesis based on a new phylogenetic analysis. Following Marsh's original classification, they restricted Pteranodontia to the families Pteranodontidae and Nyctosauridae. They also replaced Pteranodontia with Pteranodontoidea as the more inclusive group. ^[1]

Ornithocheiroidea

Azhdarchoidea Tapejaromorpha Neoazhdarchia Dsungaripteromorpha Dsungaripteridae Thalassodromidae Neopterodactyloidea Azhdarchidae Chaoyangopteridae Piksi barbarulna Pteranodontoidea Ornithocheiromorpha Pteranodontia Pteranodontidae Pteranodon sternbergi Pteranodon longiceps Tethydraco regalis Nyctosauridae Alamodactylus byrdi Volgadraco bogolubovi Cretornis hlavaci Alcione elainus Simurghia robusta Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis Barbaridactylus grandis Nyctosaurus lamegoi Nyctosaurus nanus Nyctosaurus gracilis

In 2022, Fernandes et al. described Epapatelo as a new pteranodontian from Angola. Including Epapatelo in the phylogenetic analysis of Longrich et al. (2018), they recovered a new clade, Aponyctosauria, composed of the Nyctosauridae, Alcione, Simurghia, and Epapatelo. ^[3]

Pteranodontia	Tethydraco Pteranodon longiceps Pteranodon sternbergi( Geosternbergia ) Alamodactylus Volgadraco Cretornis Aponyctosauria Epapatelo Simurghia Alcione Nyctosauridae Muzquizopteryx Nyctosaurus lamegoi Nyctosaurus grandis( Barbaridactylus ) Nyctosaurus nanus Nyctosaurus gracilis

Paleobiology

Locomotion

Similar to other pterosaurs, pteranodontian are considered to have been skilled fliers as well as adept at moving on the ground. Evidence from footprints shows that most pterosaurs did not sprawl their limbs to a large degree, as in modern reptiles, but rather held the limbs relatively erect when walking, like dinosaurs. Footprints of pteranodontians are still unknown, but it is likely that they also walked erect. ^[4] Among pterosaurs, pteranodontians had unusually uneven limb proportions, with the forelimbs much larger and longer than the hind limbs. This would likely have required them to use unique modes of locomotion when on the ground compared to other pterosaurs. Most pteranodontians like Pteranodon flew like modern day albatrosses, which consists of flying very long distances and rarely flapping, ^{[5] [6]} though they were thermal soarers like continental flyers rather than dynamic soarers like most seabirds. ^[7]

References

1. Longrich, N.R., Martill, D.M., and 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
2. Andres, B.; Myers, T. S. (2013). "Lone Star Pterosaurs". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 103 (3–4): 1. doi:10.1017/S1755691013000303. S2CID   84617119.
3. Fernandes, Alexandra E.; Mateus, Octávio; Andres, Brian; Polcyn, Michael J.; Schulp, Anne S.; Gonçalves, António Olímpio; Jacobs, Louis L. (2022). "Pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Angola". Diversity. 14 (9). 741. doi: 10.3390/d14090741 . hdl: 10362/145845 .
4. Witton, M.P.; Habib, M.B. (2010). "On the Size and Flight Diversity of Giant Pterosaurs, the Use of Birds as Pterosaur Analogues and Comments on Pterosaur Flightlessness". PLOS ONE. 5 (11): e13982. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...513982W. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013982 . PMC   2981443 . PMID   21085624.
5. Habib, M. (2011). "Dinosaur Revolution: Anhanguera." H2VP: Paleobiomechanics. Weblog entry, 20-SEP-2011. Accessed 28-SEP-2011: http://h2vp.blogspot.com/2011/09/dinosaur-revolution-anhanguera.html
6. Witton, Mark (2013). Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-0691150611.
7. Goto, Yusuke; Yoda, Ken; Weimerskirch, Henri; Sato, Katsufumi (2020). "Soaring styles of extinct giant birds and pterosaurs". bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2020.10.31.354605. S2CID 226263538.