Rhamphorhynchoidea

Rhamphorhynchoids
Temporal range:
Late Triassic–Late Cretaceous,
221–94 Ma Descendant taxon Pterodactyloidea survived to 66 Ma
"Dimorphodon macronyx"
Dimorphodon macronyx
Scientific classificationEdit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Suborder: †Rhamphorhynchoidea
Plieninger, 1901
Groups included
Cladistically included but traditionally excluded taxa
Synonyms

The Rhamphorhynchoidea forms one of the two suborders of pterosaurs and represents an evolutionary grade of primitive members of flying reptiles. This suborder is paraphyletic unlike the Pterodactyloidea, which arose from within the Rhamphorhynchoidea as opposed to a more distant common ancestor. Because it is not a completely natural grouping, Rhamphorhynchoidea is not used as a formal group in most scientific literature, though some pterosaur scientists continue to use it as an informal grouping in popular works, such as The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time by David Unwin, and in some formal studies.[1][2] Rhamphorhynchoids were the first pterosaurs to have appeared, in the late Triassic Period (Norian age, about 210 million years ago[3]). Unlike their descendants, the pterodactyloids, most rhamphorhynchoids had teeth and long tails, and most species lacked a bony crest, though several are known to have crests formed from soft tissue like keratin.[4][5][6][7] They were generally small, with wingspans rarely exceeding 2.5 meters, though one specimen alluded to by Alexander Stoyanow would be among the largest pterosaurs of all time with a wingspan of 10 meters, comparable to the largest azhdarchids.[8][9][10] However, this alleged giant Jurassic pterosaur specimen is not recorded anywhere outside the original Time article.[11] Nearly all rhamphorhynchoids had become extinct by the end of the Jurassic Period, though some anurognathids persisted to the early Cretaceous. The family Wukongopteridae, which shows a mix of rhamphorhynchoid and pterodactyloid features, is known from the Daohugou Beds which are most commonly dated to the Jurassic, but a few studies give a Cretaceous date.[12][13] Furthermore, remains of a non-pterodactyloid from the Candeleros Formation extend the presence of basal pterosaurs into at least the early Late Cretaceous.[14]

  1. ^ Unwin, David M. (2006). The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time. New York: Pi Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-13-146308-0.
  2. ^ Lü, Junchang; Qiang Ji (2006). "Preliminary results of a phylogenetic analysis of the pterosaurs from western Liaoning and surrounding area" (PDF). Journal of the Paleontological Society of Korea. 22 (1): 239–261. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
  3. ^ Butler, R.J., Barrett, P.M., and gower, D.J. (2009). "Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity and air-sacs in the earliest pterosaurs." Biology Letters, 5(4): 557–560. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0139
  4. ^ Vecchia, Fabio M. Dalla; Wild, Rupert; Hopf, Hagen; Reitner, Joachim (2002-03-14). "A crested rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur from the Late Triassic of Austria". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 22 (1): 196–199. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022[0196:ACRPFT]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 130013205.
  5. ^ Stecher, Rico (2008-05-01). "A new Triassic pterosaur from Switzerland (Central Austroalpine, Grisons), Raeticodactylus filisurensis gen. et sp. nov". Swiss Journal of Geosciences. 101 (1): 185–201. doi:10.1007/s00015-008-1252-6. ISSN 1661-8734. S2CID 128980861.
  6. ^ Czerkas, S.A., and Ji, Q. (2002). A new rhamphorhynchoid with a headcrest and complex integumentary structures. In: Czerkas, S.J. (Ed.). Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight. The Dinosaur Museum:Blanding, Utah, 15-41. ISBN 1-932075-01-1.
  7. ^ Carpenter, Kenneth; Unwin, David; Cloward, Karen; Miles, Clifford; Miles, Clark (2003-01-01). "A new scaphognathine pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, USA". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 217 (1): 45–54. Bibcode:2003GSLSP.217...45C. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2003.217.01.04. ISSN 0305-8719. S2CID 129087640.
  8. ^ "Science: Diggers". Time. 1936-11-16. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  9. ^ Witton, Mark P.; Martill, David M.; Loveridge, Robert F. (2010). "Clipping the Wings of Giant Pterosaurs: Comments on Wingspan Estimations and Diversity". Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31 (Supp 1): 79–81.
  10. ^ Why the giant azhdarchid Arambourgiania philadelphiae needs a fanclub
  11. ^ Witton, Mark P. (2010-01-01). "Pteranodon and beyond: the history of giant pterosaurs from 1870 onwards". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 343 (1): 313–323. Bibcode:2010GSLSP.343..313W. doi:10.1144/SP343.19. ISSN 0305-8719. S2CID 128801077.
  12. ^ Yuan, Wang and Evans, Susan, "A new short-bodied salamander from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous of China", Acta Palaeontological Polonica 51 (1): 127–130, 2006
  13. ^ Fucheng Zhang, Zhonghe Zhou, Xing Xu, Xiaolin Wang & Corwin Sullivan, "A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with elongate ribbon-like feathers", Nature 455, 1105–1108 (23 October 2008). The authors note that "The age of the Daohugou sediments is contentious, with possible dates ranging from Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. However, published radioisotopic dating results span a narrower range from 152 to 168 Myr (Middle to Late Jurassic)"
  14. ^ Haluza, A. Y Apesteguía, S, Pterosaur remains (Archosauria, Ornithodira) from the early Late Cretaceous of “La Buitrera”, Río Negro, Argentina, Jornada; XXIII Jornadas Argentinas de Paleontología de Vertebrados; 2007