Elanodactylus

Elanodactylus (meaning "Kite finger") is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous (early Aptian) Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China.

Elanodactylus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 124.6 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Suborder: †Pterodactyloidea
Family: †Ctenochasmatidae
Genus: †Elanodactylus
Andres & Ji, 2008
Species:
†E. prolatus
Binomial name
†Elanodactylus prolatus
Andres & Ji, 2008

The genus was named in 2008 by Brian Andres and Ji Qiang. The type species is Elanodactylus prolatus. The genus name is derived from the Kite genus Elanus, in reference to the long wings, and Greek daktylos, "finger", referring to the wing finger of pterosaurs. The specific name means "elongated" in Latin, in reference to the elongated middle cervical vertebrae.

It is known from a partial postcranial skeleton, holotype NGMC 99-07-1, preserving the wings, sternum, shoulder girdle, ribs, cervical and dorsal vertebrae. It represents an adult individual. In 2010, a second adult was described, specimen LPM-R00078, also a skeleton lacking the skull.[1]

The wingspan of the holotype was about 2.5 metres. That of the referred specimen was estimated at 1.7 metres.

The first phalanx of the wing finger is shorter than both the second and third phalanges, an autapomorphy.

The neck vertebrae possess exapophyses, a similarity with those of azhdarchids, long-necked giant pterosaurs most common in the Late Cretaceous. However, other skeletal material from Elanodactylus is otherwise distinct from the skeletons of azhdarchids. Andres and Ji performed a phylogenetic analysis and found that Elanodactylus was a ctenochasmatid. They postulated that ctenochasmatids and azhdarchids convergently evolved similar neck vertebrae.[2]

Classification

Cladogram following the latest version of Andres' data set, published by Longrich, Martill, and Andres in 2018:[3]

Ctenochasmatoidea
Gallodactylidae
 

Cycnorhamphus suevicus

 
 

Normannognathus wellnhoferi

 
 
Ctenochasmatidae
 
 

Kepodactylus

 
 
Moganopterinae
 

Moganopterus

 
 

Feilongus

 
 
 
 

Ardeadactylus

 
 
 

Elanodactylus

 
Gnathosaurinae
 

Huanhepterus

 
 
 

Plataleorhynchus

 
 

Gnathosaurus

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ctenochasmatinae

 
 
 
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See also

References
  1. Chang-Fu Zhou, 2010, “New material of Elanodactylus prolatus Andres & Ji, 2008 (Pterosauria: Pterodactyloidea) from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of western Liaoning, China”, Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 255: 277-286
  2. Andres, B.; Ji Q. (2008). "A new pterosaur from the Liaoning Province of China, the phylogeny of the Pterodactyloidea, and convergence in their cervical vertebrae". Palaeontology. 51 (2): 453–469. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00761.x.
  3. Longrich, N.R.; Martill, D.M.; 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. PMC 5849296. PMID 29534059.


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