''Cacibupteryx'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

rhamphorhynchid Rhamphorhynchidae is a group of early pterosaurs named after ''Rhamphorhynchus'', that lived in the Late Jurassic. The family Rhamphorhynchidae was named in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley.Seeley, H.G. (1870). "The Orithosauria: An Elementary Study o ...

pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

from the middle-late Oxfordian-age

Upper Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

Jagua Formation The Jagua Formation is a Late Jurassic (middle to late Oxfordian (stage), Oxfordian) geologic Formation (geology), formation in the Sierra de los Órganos and Sierra del Rosario mountain ranges in Pinar del Río Province, western Cuba. Plesiosaur ...

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 191,081 (2022), it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños''. History Pinar del Río was ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

Discovery and naming

The genus was named in 2004 by Zulma Gasparini,

Marta Fernández Marta Fernández may refer to: * Marta Fernández (basketball) (born 1981), Spanish basketball player * Marta Fernández (politician) (born 1966), Spanish politician * Marta Fernández Vázquez Marta Fernández Vázquez (born September 8, 1973 ...

and Marcelo de la Fuente. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

is ''Cacibupteryx caribensis''. The genus name is derived from ''Cacibu'', the "Lord of the Sky" in

Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...

and Greek ''pteryx'', "wing". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

refers to the Caribbean, ''Caribe'' in Spanish. The genus is based on

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

IGO-V 208, a partial but well-preserved uncrushed skull — missing the tip of the snout, teeth, and lower jaws — and fragmentary left

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

: the distal end of the

ulna The ulna or ulnar bone (: ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone in the forearm stretching from the elbow to the wrist. It is on the same side of the forearm as the little finger, running parallel to the Radius (bone), radius, the forearm's other long ...

, fragments of the

radius In classical geometry, a radius (: radii or radiuses) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The radius of a regular polygon is th ...

, and the first and fourth

phalanx The phalanx (: phalanxes or phalanges) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together. The term is particularly used t ...

of the wing finger. The partial skull is seventeen centimeters long (6.7 inches), is preserved in

three dimensions In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position of a point. Most commonly, it is the three-di ...

, and has a broad roof. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

and length were not estimated by the describers, but it was indicated to be a relatively large form.

Classification

The describers assigned ''Cacibupteryx'' to the

Rhamphorhynchidae Rhamphorhynchidae is a group of early pterosaurs named after '' Rhamphorhynchus'', that lived in the Late Jurassic. The family Rhamphorhynchidae was named in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley.Seeley, H.G. (1870). "The Orithosauria: An Elementary Study ...

. Although there is little overlapping material with contemporaneous ''

Nesodactylus ''Nesodactylus'' was a genus of rhamphorhynchid pterosaur from the middle-late Oxfordian ageDe la Fuente, M. S., & Iturralde-Vinent, M. (2001). A new pleurodiran turtle from the Jagua Formation (Oxfordian) of western Cuba. Journal Information, ...

'' from the same location, the two are clearly different as proven by details of the

elbow The elbow is the region between the upper arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and t ...

and quadrate. ''Cacibupteryx'' is one of the most complete Oxfordian pterosaurs, and demonstrates additional Oxfordian pterosaur diversity.

Phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analyses have found it to be a member of the subfamily

Rhamphorhynchinae Rhamphorhynchidae is a group of early pterosaurs named after ''Rhamphorhynchus'', that lived in the Late Jurassic. The family Rhamphorhynchidae was named in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley.Seeley, H.G. (1870). "The Orithosauria: An Elementary Study o ...

, closely related to ''

Rhamphorhynchus ''Rhamphorhynchus'' (, from Ancient Greek ''rhamphos'' meaning "beak" and ''rhynchus'' meaning "snout") is a genus of long-tailed pterosaurs in the Jurassic period. Less specialized than contemporary, short-tailed pterodactyloid pterosaurs such ...

'' and ''Nesodactylus''.

References

{{Portalbar, Paleontology, Cuba Rhamphorhynchidae Late Jurassic pterosaurs of North America Oxfordian life Jurassic Cuba Fossils of Cuba Fossil taxa described in 2004 Taxa named by Zulma Brandoni de Gasparini Pterosaur genera

Discovery and naming

Classification

See also

References