''Cathayopterus'' is an extinct genus of
ctenochasmatid pterosaur
Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is 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 to ...
from the
Early Cretaceous
The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma.
Geology
Pro ...
-age
Yixian Formation of
Liaoning
Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...
, China. The name means "China wing", using the word "Cathay" as an old alternative name for China. The
type species
In 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 species that contains the biological type specimen ...
is ''C. grabaui'', described in 2006 by
Wang Xiaolin and
Zhou Zhongh. It is a member of the
Ctenochasmatidae, a clade of mostly filter feeding pterosaurs from the Jurassic and early Cretaceous.
Description
''Cathayopterus'' is only known from a skull preserved in dorsal view, which shows teeth splaying outwards at the tip of the rostrum, similar to ''
Ctenochasma''. The skull is incomplete, with the left side being damaged.
Classification
The cladogram below follows a
phylogenetic analysis upheld by Lü and colleagues in 2016. They recovered ''Cathayopterus'' as a basal member of the family Ctenochasmatidae.
[Lü J., Kundrát M., Shen C., 2016, "New Material of the Pterosaur ''Gladocephaloideus'' Lü et al., 2012 from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, China, with Comments on Its Systematic Position", ''PLoS ONE'' 11(6): e0154888. ]
Paleobiology
''Cathayopterus'' was likely a filter feeder, just like other
ctenochasmatid pterosaurs. It likely roamed around waterways to feed.
See also
*
List of pterosaur genera
*
Timeline of pterosaur research
References
{{Portal bar, Paleontology, Cretaceous, China
Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Asia
Ctenochasmatoids
Yixian fauna
Taxa named by Zhou Zhonghe
Fossil taxa described in 2006