Ornithocheiroidea

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Cladus: Avemetatarsalia
Cladus: Ornithodira
Superordo: † Pterosauromorpha
Ordo: †Pterosauria
Subordo: †Pterodactyloidea
Superfamilia: Ornithocheiroidea
Familiae: Istiodactylidae - Nyctosauridae - Ornithocheiridae - Pteranodontidae

Genera incertae sedis: Aussiedraco
Name

Ornithocheiroidea Seeley, 1870
Vernacular names
català: Ornitoqueiroïdeu
中文: 鳥掌翼龍超科

Ornithocheiroidea (or ornithocheiroids) is a group of pterosaurs within the extinct suborder Pterodactyloidea. They were typically large pterosaurs that lived from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods (Valanginian to Maastrichtian stages), with fossil remains found all over the world except Antarctica.

Ornithocheiroids were the most advanced group of pterosaurs, as the group includes the clade Azhdarchoidea, of which its members lived until the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, around 66 million years ago. Notable pterosaurs from this group include the pteranodontians Pteranodon and Nyctosaurus, the ornithocheirid Ornithocheirus, the anhanguerid Tropeognathus, as well as the azhdarchids Hatzegopteryx and Quetzalcoatlus.
Classification

The name Ornithocheiroidea was originally defined as an apomorphy-based taxon by Christopher Bennett in 1994. It was given a relationship-based definition in 2003 by Alexander Kellner, who defined it as the least inclusive clade containing Anhanguera blittersdorffi, Pteranodon longiceps, Dsungaripterus weii, and Quetzalcoatlus northropi.[2] Later that year, David Unwin suggested a more restrictive definition, in which the clade only contains Pteranodon longiceps, Istiodactylus latidens, and their descentants.[3] Brian Andres (2008, 2010, 2014) in his analyses, defined Ornithocheiroidea using the definition of Kellner (2003) to avoid confusion with similarly-defined groups, like Pteranodontoidea.[4][5]

Below is a cladogram showing the results of a phylogenetic analysis presented by Longrich and colleagues in 2018. They found Ornithocheiroidea to consist of the clades Pteranodontoidea and Azhdarchoidea, as well as the genus Piksi.[6]

terodactyloidea

Haopterus gracilis Ornithocheiroidea Piksi barbarulna Pteranodontoidea Pteranodontia Pteranodontidae Tethydraco regalis Pteranodon longiceps Pteranodon sternbergi Nyctosauridae Alamodactylus byrdi Volgadraco bogolubovi Cretornis hlavaci Alcione elainus Simurghia robusta Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis Barbaridactylus grandis Nyctosaurus lamegoi Nyctosaurus nanus Nyctosaurus gracilis Ornithocheiromorpha Hongshanopterus lacustris Lonchodectidae Lonchodraco giganteus Lonchodectes compressirostris Boreopteridae Boreopterus cuiae Zhenyuanopterus longirostris Lanceodontia Istiodactylidae Nurhachius ignaciobritoi Liaoxipterus brachyognathus Istiodactylus sinensis Istiodactylus latidens Aetodactylus halli Cimoliopterus dunni Cimoliopterus cuvieri Anhangueria Guidraco Ludodactylus Cearadactylus Brasileodactylus Ornithocheirae Anhangueridae Ornithocheiridae Azhdarchoidea Tapejaromorpha Bennettazhia oregonensis Tapejaridae Tapejarinae Tapejara wellnhoferi Europejara olcadesorum Vectidraco daisymorrisae Caiuajara dobruskii Tupandactylus navigans Tupandactylus imperator Bakonydraco galaczi "Huaxiapterus" benxiensis "Huaxiapterus" corollatus Eopteranodon lii Huaxiapterus jii Sinopterus dongi Neoazhdarchia Dsungaripteromorpha Dsungaripteridae Dsungaripterinae Dsungaripterus weii Domeykodactylus ceciliae Noripterinae Noripterus parvus Noripterus complicidens Thalassodromidae Tupuxuara longicristatus Tupuxuara leonardii Thalassodromeus sethi Alanqa saharica Aerotitan sudamericanus Neopterodactyloidea Chaoyangopteridae Microtuban altivolans Chaoyangopterinae Shenzhoupterus Chaoyangopterus Jidapterus Eoazhdarcho liaoxiensis Radiodactylus langstoni Azhdarchidae Montanazhdarcho minor Azhdarcho lancicollis Phosphatodraco mauritanicus Aralazhdarcho bostobensis Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis aff. Quetzalcoatlus Zhejiangopterus linhaiensis Arambourgiania philadelphiae Hatzegopteryx thambema Quetzalcoatlus spp.

In 2019, a phylogenetic analysis conducted by Kellner and colleagues had recovered Ornithocheiroidea as the sister taxon of the Archaeopterodactyloidea, and consisting of the clades Tapejaroidea and Pteranodontoidea.^[7] Several recent studies have followed this or a similar concept.^[8][9][10] The cladogram of the analysis by Kellner and colleagues is presented below:

Pterodactyloidea

Archaeopterodactyloidea Ornithocheiroidea Pteranodontoidea Pteranodontia Pteranodontidae Pteranodon longiceps Tethydraco regalis Nyctosauridae Nyctosaurus gracilis Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis Lanceodontia Hongshanopterus lacustris Istiodactylidae Nurhachius ignaciobritoi Istiodactylinae Istiodactylus latidens Istiodactylus sinensis Haopterus gracilis Lonchodraco giganteus Ikrandraco avatar Ornithocheirae Ornithocheirus simus Cimoliopterus cuvieri Anhangueria Camposipterus sedgwickii Hamipteridae Hamipterus tianshanensis Iberodactylus andreui Anhangueridae Tropeognathus mesembrinus Coloborhynchinae Coloborhynchus clavirostris Uktenadactylus wadleighi Anhanguerinae Caulkicephalus trimicrodon Guidraco venator Ludodactylus sibbicki Liaoningopterus gui Cearadactylus atrox Maaradactylus kellneri AMNH 22555 Anhanguera blittersdorffi Anhanguera piscator Tapejaroidea Dsungaripteridae Dsungaripterus weii Noripterus parvus Azhdarchoidea Azhdarchidae Azhdarcho lancicollis Quetzalcoatlus sp. Zhejiangopterus linhaiensis Chaoyangopteridae Chaoyangopterus zhangi Jidapterus edentus Shenzhoupterus chaoyangensis Tapejaromorpha Keresdrakon vilsoni Tapejaridae Thalassodrominae Thalassodromeus sethi Tupuxuara leonardii Tapejarinae Caupedactylus ybaka Aymberedactylus cearensis Eopteranodon lii "Huaxiapterus" benxiensis "Huaxiapterus" corollatus Sinopterus dongi Tapejarini Europejara olcadesorum Caiuajara dobruskii Tapejara wellnhoferi Tupandactylus imperator

References

Unwin, David M.; Heinrich, Wolf-Dieter (1999). "On a pterosaur jaw from the Upper Jurassic of Tendaguru (Tanzania)". Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe. 2: 121–134.
Kellner, A. W. A., (2003): Pterosaur phylogeny and comments on the evolutionary history of the group. pp. 105-137. — in Buffetaut, E. & Mazin, J.-M., (eds.): Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs. Geological Society of London, Special Publications 217, London, 1-347
Unwin, D. M., (2003): On the phylogeny and evolutionary history of pterosaurs. pp. 139-190. — in Buffetaut, E. & Mazin, J.-M., (eds.): Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs. Geological Society of London, Special Publications 217, London, 1-347 doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2003.217.01.11
Andres, Brian Blake (2014). Systematics of the Pterosauria. Yale University. p. 366. A preview that shows the cladogram without clade names
Andres, B.; Clark, J.; Xu, X. (2014). "The Earliest Pterodactyloid and the Origin of the Group". Current Biology. 24 (9): 1011–6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.030. PMID 24768054.
Longrich, N.R., Martill, D.M., and Andres, B. (2018). Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. PLoS Biology, 16(3): e2001663. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2001663
Kellner, Alexander W. A.; Weinschütz, Luiz C.; Holgado, Borja; Bantim, Renan A. M.; Sayão, Juliana M. (August 19, 2019). "A new toothless pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea) from Southern Brazil with insights into the paleoecology of a Cretaceous desert". Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. 91 (suppl 2): e20190768. doi:10.1590/0001-3765201920190768. ISSN 0001-3765. PMID 31432888.
Kellner, Alexander W. A.; Caldwell, Michael W.; Holgado, Borja; Vecchia, Fabio M. Dalla; Nohra, Roy; Sayão, Juliana M.; Currie, Philip J. (2019). "First complete pterosaur from the Afro-Arabian continent: insight into pterodactyloid diversity". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 17875. Bibcode:2019NatSR...917875K. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-54042-z. PMC 6884559. PMID 31784545.
Borja Holgado, Rodrigo V. Pêgas, José Ignacio Canudo, Josep Fortuny, Taissa Rodrigues, Julio Company & Alexander W.A. Kellner, 2019, "On a new crested pterodactyloid from the Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula and the radiation of the clade Anhangueria", Scientific Reports 9: 4940 doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41280-4
Jiang, Shun-Xing; Zhang, Xin-Jun; Cheng, Xin; Wang, Xiao-Lin (2020). "A new pteranodontoid pterosaur forelimb from the upper Yixian Formation, with a revision of Yixianopterus jingangshanensis" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. doi:10.19615/j.cnki.1000-3118.201124.