Dimorphodontidae (or dimorphodontids) is a group of early "

rhamphorhynchoid The Rhamphorhynchoidea forms one of the two suborders of pterosaurs and represents an evolutionary grade of primitive members of flying reptiles. This suborder is paraphyletic unlike the Pterodactyloidea, which arose from within the Rhamphorhync ...

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 ...

s named after ''

Dimorphodon ''Dimorphodon'' ( ) is a genus of medium-sized pterosaur from Europe during the early Jurassic Period (about 201-191 million years ago).Müller R.T., Ezcurra M.D., Garcia M.S., Agnolín F.L., Stocker M.R., Novas F.E., Soares M.B., Kellner A.W.A. ...

'', that lived in the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...

Early Jurassic The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic� ...

. While fossils that can be definitively referred to the group are rare, dimorphodontids may have had a broad distribution, with fossils known from the UK, the southwest United States, and possibly Antarctica. Dimorphodontidae was named in 1870 by

Harry Govier Seeley Harry Govier Seeley (18 February 1839 – 8 January 1909) was a British paleontologist. Early life Seeley was born in London on 18 February 1839, the second son of Richard Hovill Seeley, a goldsmith, and his second wife Mary Govier. When his fa ...

(as "Dimorphodontae"), with ''Dimorphodon'' as the only known member. In 2003,

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 ...

defined a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

Dimorphodontidae, as the group consisting of the last common ancestor of '' Dimorphodon macronyx'' and '' Peteinosaurus zambellii'', and all its descendants.Unwin, D. M. 2003. "On the phylogeny and evolutionary history of pterosaurs". In: Buffetaut, E. & Mazin, J.-M. (eds), ''Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs''. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 217: 139-190 However, later studies found that ''Dimorphodon'' may not be closely related to ''Peteinosaurus'', so this definition of Dimorphodontidae would therefore be superfluous. In 2014, Brian Andres and colleagues defined another clade, Dimorphodontia, as a replacement for Dimorphodontidae. Dimorphodontia would include all pterosaurs more closely related to ''Dimorphodon'' than to ''

Pterodactylus ''Pterodactylus'' (from ) is a genus of extinct pterosaurs. It is thought to contain only a single species, ''Pterodactylus antiquus'', which was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile and one of the first prehis ...

''. According to the analysis published by Andres ''et al.'', Dimorphodontia is also a small group, including only ''Dimorphodon'' and '' Parapsicephalus''. In 2018, a close relative of ''Dimorphodon'' was described from the Late Triassic of North America by Britt and colleagues, and was named '' Caelestiventus''. This discovery expanded the geographic, temporal and also the ecological range of dimorphodontids, as it was discovered in the Late Triassic Nugget Sandstone in Utah, which was a desert at the time. Britt and colleagues also redefined Dimorphodontidae as the least inclusive clade containing ''Dimorphodon macronyx'' and ''Caelestiventus hanseni''.

References

{{Authority control Pterosaurs Taxa named by Harry Seeley Pterosaur families