Caelidracones

Pterosaurs Temporal range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous, 161–66Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Replica Geosternbergia sternbergi skeletons, female (left) and male (right)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Pterosauria
Clade:	†Pterodactyliformes
Clade:	†Caelidracones Unwin, 2003
Subgroups[1]
†Anurognathidae †Pterodactyloidea

The Caelidracones are a group of pterosaurs.

The clade Caelidracones was defined in 2003 by David Unwin as the group consisting of the last common ancestor of Anurognathus ammoni Döderlein 1923 and Quetzalcoatlus northropi Lawson 1975; and all its descendants.

The name Caelidracones means "sky dragons" from Latin caelum, "heaven", and draco, "dragon" and is a reference to Harry Govier Seeley's 1901 book, Dragons of the Air.

In Unwin's original classification, the Caelidracones were considered the sister group of the Dimorphodontidae within the Macronychoptera and consist of the Anurognathidae and the Lonchognatha.^[2] More recent studies of pterosaur relationships have found anurognathids and pterodactyloids to be sister groups, which would limit Caelidracones to just those two clades.^[1]

References