Jidapterus

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Jidapterus
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Pterosauria
Suborder: Pterodactyloidea
Superfamily: Azhdarchoidea
Family: Chaoyangopteridae
Genus: Jidapterus
Dong, Sun, & Wu, 2003
Species
  • J. edentus Dong, Sun, & Wu, 2003 (type)

Jidapterus (meaning "Jilin University wing") was a genus of azhdarchoid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Barremian-Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. It is based on CAD-01, a nearly complete skeleton with partial skull. The skull is toothless and relatively long, with a straight beak, and a large hole where the antorbital fenestra is joined with the nostrils. The eye sockets are small, and there is no crest along the lower jaw as seen in ornithocheiroids, although a short projection was present at the back of the skull. The wingspan of this individual was estimated to be 1.7 m (5.58 ft).[1] Its classification has been unstable; the original authors did not assign it to a group.[2] Some of the original authors later suggested it was a more basal azhdarchoid,[3] whereas another group suggested it was closer to Pteranodon and possibly the same genus as Chaoyangopterus[4] David Unwin assigned it to Tapejaridae without comment in The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time,[5] but later, in a collaboration with Lü, agreed that it was a basal azhdarchoid and close relative of Chaoyangopterus and placed both in the new family Chaoyangopteridae.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dong Z., Sun Y., and Wu S. (2003). On a new pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Chaoyang Basin, Western Liaoning, China. Global Geology 22(1):1-7.
  2. ^ Li, J., Lü, J., and Zhang, B. (2003). "A new Lower Cretaceous sinopterid pterosaur from the Western Liaoning, China." Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 42(3):442-447.
  3. ^ J. Lü, and Q. Ji. (2006). Preliminary results of a phylogenetic analysis of the pterosaurs from western Liaoning and surrounding area. Journal of the Paleontological Society of Korea 22(1):239-261.
  4. ^ Xiaolin Wang, Kellner, A.W.K., Zhonghe Zhou, and de Almeida Campos, D. (2005). Pterosaur diversity and faunal turnover in Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems in China. Nature 437:875-879.
  5. ^ Unwin, D.M. (2006). The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time. Pi Press:New York, p. 273. ISBN 0-13-146308-X.
  6. ^ Lü, J., Unwin, D.M., Xu, L., and Zhang, X. (2008). "A new azhdarchoid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China and its implications for pterosaur phylogeny and evolution." Naturwissenschaften,

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