This list of pterosaur classifications entails the various schemes used to classify pterosaurs throughout the years and varying views of these animals.
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| Pterosauria |
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The basal lizard, Huehuecuetzpalli is the most primitive taxon in this newly revealed third squamate clade between Iguania and Scleroglossa. Two branches arise from it.
Jesairosaurus is basal to the Drepanosauridae. Three distinct specimens of Macrocnemus give rise to the Tanystropheidae, the Langobardisaurinae and to the Fenestrasauria respectively.
Within the Fenestrasauria Cosesaurus is basal to Sharovipteryx, Saltopus, Longisquama and the Pterosauria in that order.
The Milan specimen of Eudimorphodon (MPUM 6009) is the most primitive known pterosaur and Austriadactylus is a sister taxon. One of two major clades, the Dimorphodontoidea, includes the Dimorphodontidae and the Anurognathidae.
The other major clade includes all other pterosaurs with Eudimorphodon + (Campylognathoides + Rhamphorhynchus) at its base. Higher dorygnathoids divide into the Dorygnathidae and a clade with Sordes at its base. In the former two distinct Dorygnathus specimens are basal to Ctenochasma and kin on one branch and to Quetzalcoatlus and kin on the other.
Within the Sordes-based clade, Pterorhynchus and Scaphognathus crassirostris are basal. Subsequently two distinct smaller Scaphognathus specimens are basal to two major clades. The first is a series of tiny pterosaurs, Cycnorhamphus and the Ornithocheiridae. The second includes some tiny pterosaurs, the Pterodactylidae and the Germanodactylidae. From the latter arise the Dsungaripteria (Dsungaripteridae + Tapejaridae) and a clade consisting of (Eoazhdarcho + Eopteranodon) + (Pteranodon + Nyctosaurus).
Thus the former monophyletic "Pterodactyloidea" is revealed to be four distinct clades demonstrating some convergence. Major clades typically have a spectral series of tiny pterosaurs at their base suggesting that paedomorphosis was a major factor in pterosaur evolution.