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Elanodactylus is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning, China. It is known from a partial postcranial skeleton that has neck vertebrae similar to those of azhdarchids, long-necked giant pterosaurs most common in the Late Cretaceous, but is otherwise distinct from the skeletons of azhdarchids. Andres and Ji Q., who described and named the fossils in 2008, performed a phylogenetic analysis and found that Elanodactylus was a ctenochasmatid. They postulated that ctenochasmatids and azhdarchids convergently evolved similar neck vertebrae. The type species is E. prolatus.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Andres, B.; and Ji Q. (2008). "A new pterosaur from the Liaoning Province of China, the phylogeny of the Pterodactyloidea, and convergence in their cervical vertebrae". Palaeontology 51 (2): 453–469. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00761.x.
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