| Chaoyangopterus Fossil range: Early Cretaceous | ||||||||||||||||
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C. zhangi Wang & Zhou, 2003 (type) |
Chaoyangopterus (meaning "Chaoyang wing") is a genus of azhdarchoid pterodactyloid pterosaur known from a partial skeleton found in Liaoning, China. It was found in rocks of the Barremian-Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jifuotang Formation of Dapingfang, Chaoyang. It is based on IVPP V13397, which includes the front of the skull, the lower jaws, the neck vertebrae, the shoulder and pelvic girdles, and the limbs. The skull is about 270 millimeters long (10.6 inches) and toothless, and its wingspan is estimated to have been around 1.85 meters (6.07 feet). Wang Xiao-Lin and Zhou Zhong-He, who described it, concluded that it compared most closely to Nyctosaurus and classified it as a nyctosaurid, although they found that its shin was proportionally longer compared to the femur and humerus in Chaoyangopterus, that their animal had relatively shorter wings and longer legs than Nyctosaurus, and that it still had four fingers.[1]
The classification of Chaoyangopterus has since become unsettled, with subsequent reviewers disagreeing with the nyctosaurid assessment. David Unwin, in a popular work, included it without comment with the tapejarid family of azhdarchoid pterosaurs,[2] known for their large head crests. A detailed phylogenetic analysis of Liaoning pterosaurs published by Junchang Lü and Qiang Ji in 2006 found it instead to be a basal azhdarchoid of no particular familial affiliation.[3] However, subsequent analysis by Lu and Unwin found it to indeed be a basal azhdarchoid, and that it formed a clade with several other primitive forms such as Jidapterus and Shenzhoupterus, which they named Chaoyangopteridae.[4]
[edit] Paleobiology
Chaoyangopterus is known to have been a toothless pterosaur, but other relevant details of its paleobiology will have to await a more detailed description.
[edit] References
- ^ Wang Xiao-Lin; and Zhou Zhong-He (2003). "Two new pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Western Liaoning, China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica 41 (1): 34–41.
- ^ Unwin, David M. (2006). The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time. New York: Pi Press. p. 273. ISBN ISBN 0-13-146308-X.
- ^ 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 on 2007-03-10.
- ^ 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,
[edit] External links
- Chaoyangopterus in The Pterosauria
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