''Chaoyangopterus'' 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 ...

of chaoyangopterid

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 ...

known from a partial skeleton found in

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. ''Chaoyangopterus'' was found in rocks dating back to the

Aptian The Aptian is an age (geology), age in the geologic timescale or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), S ...

-age

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker * Lower (surname) * Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) * Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also * Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

Jiufotang Formation The Jiufotang Formation () is an Early Cretaceous geological formation in Chaoyang, Liaoning which has yielded fossils of feathered dinosaurs, primitive birds, pterosaurs, and other organisms (see Jehol Biota). It is a member of the Jehol group. T ...

of Dapingfang, Chaoyang.

Etymology

''Chaoyangopterus'' was named and described in 2003 by

Wang Xiaolin Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) (王), a common Chinese surname * Wāng (汪), a less common Chinese surname * Titles in Chinese nobility * A title in Korean nobility * A title in Mongolian nobility Places * Wang River in Thailand ...

and

Zhou Zhonghe Zhonghe Zhou (; born 19 January 1965 in Jiangdu, Jiangsu province) is a Chinese palaeontologist. He described the ancient bird '' Confuciusornis''.. Zhonghe graduated from Nanjing University and earned a Ph.D. in Biology in 1999 from the Univer ...

. 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 ''Chaoyangopterus zhangi''. The genus name is derived from Chaoyang and a Latinized Greek ''pteron'', "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 ...

honors

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Zhang Wanlian for his efforts in protecting fossil sites.

Description

''Chaoyangopterus'' 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 ...

IVPP V13397, which includes the front of the skull, the lower jaws, the neck

vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

e, the

shoulder The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder m ...

and

pelvic girdle The hip bone (os coxae, innominate bone, pelvic bone or coxal bone) is a large flat bone, constricted in the center and expanded above and below. In some vertebrates (including humans before puberty) it is composed of three parts: the Ilium (bone) ...

s, and the limbs. The skull is about long and toothless, and its

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 ...

is estimated to have been around . Wang and Zhou concluded that it compared most closely to ''

Nyctosaurus ''Nyctosaurus'' (meaning "night lizard") is a genus of nyctosaurid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of what is now the Niobrara Formation of the mid-western United States, which, during the time ''Nyctosaurus'' was alive, was covered in ...

'' and classified it as a

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 other continents including South America. It was named in 1889 by Henry A ...

, although they found that its shin was proportionally longer compared to the

femur The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only long bone, bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many quadrupeds, four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The Femo ...

and

humerus The humerus (; : humeri) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius (bone), radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extrem ...

in ''Chaoyangopterus'', that their animal had relatively shorter wings and longer legs than ''Nyctosaurus'', and that it still had four fingers.

Classification

The classification of ''Chaoyangopterus'' has since become unsettled, with subsequent reviewers disagreeing with the nyctosaurid assessment.

David Unwin David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

, in a popular work, included it without comment with the

tapejarid Tapejaridae (from a Tupi word meaning 'the lord of the ways') is a family of azhdarchoid pterosaurs from the Cretaceous period. Members are currently known from Brazil, England, Hungary, Morocco, Spain, the United States, and China. The most p ...

family of azhdarchoid pterosaurs, known for their large head crests. A detailed

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 ...

analysis of Liaoning pterosaurs published by

Lü Junchang Lü Junchang (; 1965 – 9 October 2018) was a Chinese palaeontologist and professor at the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. An expert on Mesozoic reptiles, he described and named dozens of dinosaur and pterosaur taxa ...

and Ji Qiang in 2006 found it instead to be a basal azhdarchoid of no particular familial affiliation. However, subsequent analysis by Lü and Unwin found that within the Azhdarchoidea it formed a clade with several other forms such as '' Jidapterus'' and '' Shenzhoupterus'', which they named Chaoyangopteridae. Wang and Zhou, however, stated in 2006 that ''Chaoyangopterus'' was a member of the

Pteranodontidae The Pteranodontidae are a Family (biology), family of large pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of North America and possibly other continents including Europe and Africa. The family was named in 1876 by Othniel Charles Marsh. Pteranodontids had a ...

and that ''Jidapterus'', ''

Eoazhdarcho ''Eoazhdarcho'' is a genus of Azhdarchoidea, azhdarchoid pterodactyloid pterosaur named in 2005 in paleontology, 2005 by Chinese paleontologists Lü Junchang and Ji Qiang. The type species, type and only known species is ''Eoazhdarcho liaoxiensi ...

'' and '' Eopteranodon'' are subjective

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

s of the former. This interpretation was not supported by a 2017 redescription of ''Jidapterus'', which was able to reliably distinguish all of these genera. Below are two

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

s showing the phylogenetic placement of ''Chaoyangopterus'' within the

Azhdarchoidea Azhdarchoidea ( , meaning "azhdarchid-like forms") is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Pterosaurs belonging to this group lived throughout the Early and Late Cretaceous periods, with one tentative member, '' Tendaguri ...

. The one on the left is a topology by Felipe Pinheiro and colleagues in 2011, they recovered ''Chaoyangopterus'' within the family Tapejaridae, more specifically within a subfamily called Chaoyangopterinae, sister taxon to both ''Jidapterus'' and ''Shenzhoupterus''. The cladogram on the right is a different topology, recovered by

Alexander Kellner Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner (born September 26, 1961) is a Brazilian geologist and paleontologist who is a leading expert in the field of studying pterosaurs. His research has focused mainly on fossil reptiles from the Cretaceous Period, i ...

and colleagues in 2019. Unlike the analysis by Pinheiro and colleagues, the analysis by Kellner and colleagues did not recover ''Chaoyangopterus'' as a tapejarid, but instead recovered it within the family Chaoyangopteridae, still the sister taxon to both ''Jidapterus'' and ''Shenzhoupterus'', though. Chaoyangopteridae in turn was found as the sister taxon of the family

Azhdarchidae Azhdarchidae (from the Persian word , , a dragon-like creature in Persian mythology) is a family of pterosaurs known primarily from the Late Cretaceous Period, though an isolated vertebra apparently from an azhdarchid is known from the Early Cre ...

, both within the clade Azhdarchoidea. Topology 1: Pinheiro and colleagues (2011). Topology 2: Kellner and colleagues (2019).

Paleobiology

''Chaoyangopterus'' is known to have been a toothless pterosaur and was assumed by Wang to have been a

piscivore A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted repti ...

or fish-eater, but other relevant details of its paleobiology will have to await a more detailed description. Chaoyangopterids in general are now thought to have been similar to

azhdarchid Azhdarchidae (from the Persian word , , a dragon-like creature in Persian mythology) is a family of pterosaurs known primarily from the Late Cretaceous Period, though an isolated vertebra apparently from an azhdarchid is known from the Early Cre ...

pterosaurs, implying that they were probably crane-like terrestrial omnivores and opportunistic carnivores.

References

External links

''Chaoyangopterus''
in The Pterosauria {{Portal bar, Paleontology, China Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Asia Chaoyangopteridae Fossil taxa described in 2003 Jiufotang fauna Chaoyang, Liaoning Pterosaur genera