Rhamphorhynchoidea

Rhamphorhynchoids
Temporal range:
Late Triassic–Early Cretaceous,
230–124.5 Ma
Descendant taxon Pterodactyloidea survived to 65 Ma
Artist's impression of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: †Pterosauria
informal group: †Rhamphorhynchoidea
Plieninger, 1901
Families

Anurognathidae
Campylognathoididae
Dimorphodontidae
Rhamphorhynchidae

The Rhamphorhynchoidea forms one of the two suborders of pterosaurs and represent an evolutionary grade of primitive members of this group of flying reptiles. This suborder is paraphyletic in relation to the Pterodactyloidea, which arose from within the Rhamphorhynchoidea, not from 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] Ramphorhynchoids were the first pterosaurs to have appeared, in the late Triassic Period. 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. They were generally small. Nearly all had become extinct by the end of the Jurassic Period, though least one anurognathid genus, Dendrorhynchoides, persisted to the early Cretaceous. In addition the family Wukongopteridae, which shows a mix of rhamphorynchoid 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.[3][4]

Contents

Classification

Taxonomy

Listing of families and superfamilies within the suborder Rhamphorhynchoidea, after Unwin 2006 unless otherwise noted.[1]

Phylogeny

Cladogram after Unwin (2003). For alternate cladograms, see List of pterosaur classifications. In phylogenetic taxonomy, "rhamphorhynchoids" consist of all basal (primitive) pterosaurs that do not belong to the clade Monofenestrata.

 Pterosauria
 |-?Comodactylus 
 |-?Laopteryx 
 |-?Odontorhynchus 
 |-?Rhamphinion 
 |-?Preondactylus 
 `--Macronychoptera
    |--Dimorphodontidae
    `--Caelidracones
       |--Anurognathidae
       `--Lonchognatha
          |--Campylognathoididae
          `--Breviquartossa
             |--Rhamphorhynchidae
             |  |--Scaphognathinae
             |  `--Rhamphorhynchinae
             `--Pterodactyloidea

References

  1. ^ a b Unwin, David M. (2006). The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time. New York: Pi Press. p. 246. ISBN 0-13-146308-X. 
  2. ^ Lü, Junchang; and Qiang 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. http://cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/Lu&Ji_ptero_phylogeny.pdf. Retrieved 2007-03-10. 
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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)"