Nyctosaurid

Nyctosauridae (meaning "night lizards" or "bat lizards") is a family of specialized soaring pterosaurs of the late Cretaceous Period of North America, Africa, and possibly Europe. It was named in 1889 by Henry Alleyne Nicholson and Richard Lydekker.Nicholson, H.A. and Lydekker, R. (1889). ''A manual of palaeontology for the use of students: with a general introduction on the principles of palæontology, Volume II''. Blackwood, 1889.

Nyctosaurids are characterized by their lack of all but the wing finger. In most pterosaurs, the hand has four fingers, with the fourth elongated to support the wing, and the remaining three are usually small, clawed, and used in walking or climbing. The lack of functional fingers in nyctosaurids may suggest that they spent almost all of their time in the air, rarely walking on the ground. Nyctosaurids also possessed a distinctively enlarged crest for muscle attachment on their upper arm bone, or humerus, the ''deltopectoral crest'', hatchet shaped like in the unrelated rhamphorhynchids. Nyctosaurids are generally characterized as specialized, pelagic soarers like frigatebirds; however, the '' Alcione'' species appear to have had shorter wings and possibly have been divers like auks,

Nyctosaurids have occasionally been included in the similar family Pteranodontidae, though researchers including Christopher Bennett and Alexander Kellner have both concluded that they belonged to a separate lineage. Analyses by David Unwin did indicate a close relationship between '' Pteranodon'' and ''Nyctosaurus'', though he used the name Pteranodontia for the clade containing both genera. Both opinions were published before the discovery of the second definitively known nyctosaurid, ''Muzquizopteryx'', in 2006.Frey, E., Buchy, M.-C., Stinnesbeck, W., González, A. G. & di Stefano, A. (2006). "''Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis'' n.g., n. sp., a nyctosaurid pterosaur with soft tissue preservation from the Coniacian (Late Cretaceous) of northeast Mexico (Coahuila)." ''Oryctos'', 6: 19-39.

Most nyctosaurid fossils have been found in formations dating to the late Cretaceous period of the western United States and Mexico. ''Nyctosaurus'' dates from 85-84.5 million years ago, in the Niobrara Formation of Kansas. ''Muzquizopteryx'' is the oldest nyctosaurid known from definitive remains, dating to the Turonian- Coniacian boundary, 85.8 million years ago, in Coahuila.Schmidt, H., Buchy, M.-C., Vega, F.J., Smith, K.T., Ifrim, C., Frey, E., Keller, G., Rindfleisch, A., González, A.H.G., Lionel Cavin, L. and Stinnesbeck, W. (2006).
A new lithographic limestone deposit in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Group at El Rosario, county of Múzquiz, Coahuila, northeastern Mexico
." ''Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas'', 22(3): 401-418. However, a partial humerus with the distinctive nyctosaurid deltopectoral crest was found in Cornet, Romania, and identified as a possible European, early Cretaceous (late Berriasian age, about 140 Ma ago) nyctosaurid by Gareth Dyke and colleagues in 2010.Dyke, G., Benton, M., Posmosanu, E. and Naish, D. (2010). "Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) birds and pterosaurs from the Cornet bauxite mine, Romania." ''Palaeontology'', published online before print 15 September 2010.

Three forms are known from the Maastrichtian: a single potentially nyctosaurid humerus (upper arm bone) from Mexico, a "Nyctosaurus" lamegoi from Brazil, and a nyctosaurid complete wing-phalanx1, a claw (digit phalanx manus), and a partial ulna from Jordan. The Jordan specimen is of particular interest as it is the first record of a nyctosaurid from the Old World and represents the latest record of the family (uppermost Maastrichtian). 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 these lineages went through an evolutionary radiation in the Old World shortly before the K-Pg extinction event. Three of these pterosaurs were named in 2018, and were called '' Alcione'', '' Barbaridactylus'', and '' Simurghia''.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.

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Pteranodontoids
Santonian first appearances
Maastrichtian extinctions
Prehistoric reptile families