Mounted replicas of female and male Geosternbergia sternbergi skeletons (Royal Ontario Museum).
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Order:
†Pterosauria
Suborder:
†Pterodactyloidea
Clade:
†Pteranodontoidea
Clade:
†Pteranodontia
Family:
†Pteranodontidae Marsh, 1876
Type species
†Pteranodon longiceps
Marsh, 1876
Genera
†Dawndraco
†Bogolubovia[1]
†Geosternbergia
†Ornithostoma[2]
†Pteranodon
†Tethydraco?
†Volgadraco?[3]
The Pteranodontidae are a family of large pterosaurs of the Cretaceous Period of North America and Africa. The family was named in 1876 by Othniel Charles Marsh. Pteranodontids had a distinctive, elongated crest jutting from the rear of the head (most famously seen in Pteranodon itself). The spectacularly-crested Nyctosaurus is sometimes included in this family, though usually placed in its own family, the Nyctosauridae (Nicholson & Lydekker, 1889).
Modern researchers differ in their use of the concept. S. Christopher Bennett and Alexander Kellner have concluded that Nyctosaurus was not a pteranodontid. In 1994 Bennett defined a clade Pteranodontidae, also including species of the Ornithocheiromorpha.[4] However, this definition has not been accepted by other workers. Alexander Kellner, for example, named several additional species for specimens previously classified as Pteranodon, and placed P. sternbergi in a distinct genus, Geosternbergia. Kellner re-defined Pteranodontidae as the most recent common ancestor of Pteranodon longiceps, Geosternbergia sternbergi and Dawndraco kanzai, and all of its descendants. This definition is now contentious, however, as the validity of Dawndraco has been disputed and the utility[clarification needed] of separating Geosternbergia from Pteranodon questioned.[5] This clade possibly includes the nyctosaurids. Analyses by David Unwin did indicate a close relationship between Pteranodon and Nyctosaurus, and he used the name Pteranodontia for the clade containing both.
Pteranodontids are primarily known from the Coniacian to Campanian stages of the Cretaceous in North America and Japan.[6] However, potential Maastrichtian remains have been identified from several other locations,[7][8] being actually rather common in the Maastrichtian of the Tethys Sea. Beginning in 2016, Nicholas Longrich, David Martill, and Brian Andres presented evidence of several nyctosaurid and pteranodontid species from the latest Maastrichtian age of north Africa, suggesting that both lineages went through an evolutionary radiation in the Tethys region shortly before the K–Pg extinction event.[9][10] Additionally, later phylogenetic studies imply that they represent a ghost lineage dating much earlier in the Cretaceous.[11]Volgadraco, previously assumed to be an azhdarchid, has also since been relocated to pteranodontidae.[3]
^Averianov AO, Kurin AS (2022). "A new specimen of pteranodontid pterosaur Bogolubovia orientalis from the Upper Cretaceous of Penza Province, Russia". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2087522.
^Andres, Brian (2021-12-14). "Phylogenetic systematics of Quetzalcoatlus Lawson 1975 (Pterodactyloidea: Azhdarchoidea)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 41 (sup1): 203–217. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1801703. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 245078533.
^ abAlexander O. Averianov; Maxim S. Arkhangelsky (2020). "A large pteranodontid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Eastern Europe". Geological Magazine. 158 (7): 1143–1155. doi:10.1017/S0016756820001119. S2CID 229441587.
^Bennett, S. C. (1994). "Taxonomy and systematics of the Late Cretaceous pterosaur Pteranodon (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea)", Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 169: 1-70
^Elizabeth Martin-Silverstone; James R.N. Glasier; John H. Acorn; Sydney Mohr; Philip J. Currie (2017). "Redescription of Dawndraco kanzai Kellner, 2010 and reassignment of the type specimen to Pteranodon sternbergi Harksen, 1966". Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology. 3: 47–59. doi:10.18435/B5059J. ISSN 2292-1389.
^Alexander W.A. Kellner, Fabiana R. Costab, Xiaolin Wang & Xin Cheng, Redescription of the first pterosaur remains from Japan: the largest flying reptile from Asia, Volume 28, Issue 1-2, 2016
Special Issue: Contributions to vertebrate palaeontology in honour of Yukimitsu Tomida, DOI:10.1080/08912963.2015.1028929
^Barrett, P. M., Butler, R. J., Edwards, N. P., & Milner, A. R. (2008). Pterosaur distribution in time and space: an atlas. Zitteliana: 61-107.[1]
^Federico L. Agnolin and David Varricchio (2012). "Systematic reinterpretation of Piksi barbarulna Varricchio, 2002 from the Two Medicine Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Western USA (Montana) as a pterosaur rather than a bird". Geodiversitas. 34 (4): 883–894. doi:10.5252/g2012n4a10. S2CID 56002643.
^Longrich, Nicholas R.; Martill, David M.; Andres, Brian; Penny, David (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. PMC 5849296. PMID 29534059.
^Witton, Mark. "New paper: when the short-necked, giant azhdarchid pterosaur Hatzegopteryx ruled Late Cretaceous Romania" Mark Witton.com Blog. Mark Witton.com Blog. Patreon Supporters, 18 Jan. 2017. Web.
^Andres, B.; Myers, T. S. (2013). "Lone Star Pterosaurs". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 103 (3–4): 383–398. doi:10.1017/S1755691013000303. S2CID 84617119.
The Pteranodontidae are a family of large pterosaurs of the Cretaceous Period of North America and Africa. The family was named in 1876 by Othniel Charles...
members have also been found. Originally considered a sub-family of Pteranodontidae, Nesov (1984) named the Azhdarchinae to include the pterosaurs Azhdarcho...
end of the period only three highly specialized families remained; Pteranodontidae, Nyctosauridae, and Azhdarchidae. The Liaoning lagerstätte (Yixian...
million years ago. Tethydraco was originally assigned to the family Pteranodontidae. Some researchers argued that subsequently described material suggests...
relating to growth or gender. 'Dawndraco' was assigned by Kellner to the Pteranodontidae. In a detailed description and discussion of UALVP 24238, Martin-Silverstone...
the teeth. Some advanced beaked forms were toothless, such as the Pteranodontidae and Azhdarchidae, and had larger, more extensive, and more bird-like...
had placed the species within Azhdarchinae, back then part of the Pteranodontidae; the same year Kevin Padian placed it within Titanopterygidae. Both...
University of Kansas. 169: 1–70. Kellner, A.W.A. (2010). "Comments on the Pteranodontidae (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) with the description of two new species"...
that it may belong to either the family Nyctosauridae, or the family Pteranodontidae. Volgadraco is known from lower beak (holotype SGU, no. 46/104a) and...
316.1.40. S2CID 67809186. Kellner, A.W.A. (2010). "Comments on the Pteranodontidae (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) with the description of two new species"...
original classification, they restricted Pteranodontia to the families Pteranodontidae and Nyctosauridae. They also replaced Pteranodontia with Pteranodontoidea...
erect the new subfamily Azhdarchinae, classified within the family Pteranodontidae. Nesov also referred Quetzalcoatlus and Arambourgiania (then known...