''Eopteranodon'' (meaning "dawn ''

Pteranodon ''Pteranodon'' (); from Ancient Greek (''pteron'', "wing") and (''anodon'', "toothless") is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with ''P. longiceps'' having a wingspan of . They lived during the late Cr ...

'' (toothless wing)") is a genus of tapejarid pterosaur from the

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Beipiao City,

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 genus was named in 2005 by paleontologists Lü Junchang and Zhang Xingliao. The type and only species is ''Eopteranodon lii''.

Description and classification

''Eopteranodon'' is based on the type specimen or holotype BPV-078, an incomplete skeleton and skull. Its skull, including a large crest, was toothless and similar to that of ''Pteranodon''. The skull lacks the point of the snout but it was in life less than 200 millimeters long (7.9 inches), and the animal had a wingspan of about 1.1 meters (3.6 feet). A second specimen, D2526, described in 2006, had a larger wingspan. Despite its similarities to ''Pteranodon'', ''Eopteranodon'' was not placed into a family by its describers, who put it into the

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

Pteranodontia as '' incertae sedis'' (uncertain position). Shortly thereafter, a phylogenetic study of all known Yixian pterosaurs by the same scientists found it to be close to the azhdarchoids, noted for the crested genera '' Tapejara'' and ''

Tupuxuara ''Tupuxuara'' is a genus of large, crested, and toothless Pterodactyloidea, pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period (Albian stage) of what is now the Romualdo Formation of the Santana Group, Brazil, about 125 to 112 million ye ...

'', and the giant, long-necked ''

Quetzalcoatlus ''Quetzalcoatlus'' is a genus of pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous period of North America (Maastrichtian stage); its members were among the largest known flying animals of all time. ''Quetzalcoatlus'' is a member of the Azhdarchidae, ...

''. A further analysis of other recently discovered forms, in 2006 still considered basal to (having split off earlier than) azhdarchoids, helped the original authors, along with David Unwin, to place these species together with ''Eopteranodon'' in a new clade Chaoyangopteridae, the possible sister group of the

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 Cret ...

.Lü, J., Unwin, D.M., Xu, L., and Zhang, X. (2008). "A new azhdarchoid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China and its implications for pterosaur phylogeny and evolution." ''Naturwissenschaften'' However, in 2014, in an analysis by Brian Andres and colleagues, ''Eopteranodon'' was recovered as a basal member of the clade

Tapejaromorpha Tapejaromorpha is a group of pterosaurs within the clade Azhdarchoidea. The fossil remains of tapejaromorphs dated back to the Cretaceous period. The Tapejaromorpha was defined in 2014 by Andres and colleagues. They made Tapejaromorpha the most ...

, closely related to the species "''

Sinopterus ''Sinopterus'' (meaning "Chinese wing") was a genus of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. It was first described and named by Wang Xiaolin and Zhou Zh ...

''" '' gui'' and ''

Nemicolopterus crypticus ''Nemicolopterus'' is a genus of tapejaromorph pterosaur, based on a very small specimen described as the smallest known "adult" pterosaur to date. It lived in the Jehol Biota 120 million years ago. Discovery and naming The generic name "Nemi ...

''. Their cladogram is shown on the left. Later, in 2017, in another phylogenetic analysis, ''Eopteranodon'' was considered a member of the family Tapejaridae based on proportions of the crest on the lower jaw and the limbs. This concept has been followed by several studies in 2019, including the one by Borja Holgado and colleagues,Borja Holgado, Rodrigo V. Pêgas, José Ignacio Canudo, Josep Fortuny, Taissa Rodrigues, Julio Company & Alexander W.A. Kellner, 2019, "On a new crested pterodactyloid from the Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula and the radiation of the clade Anhangueria", ''Scientific Reports'' 9: 4940 and the one by Alexander Kellner and colleagues. The cladogram on the right is based on the topology made by Kellner and colleagues. Topology 1: Andres ''et al.'' (2014). Topology 2: Kellner ''et al.'' (2019).

References

External links

''Eopteranodon''
in The Pterosauria
at The Grave Yard--> {{Portal bar, Paleontology, Cretaceous, China Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Asia Prehistoric animals of China Tapejaromorphs Fossil taxa described in 2005 Taxa named by Lü Junchang

Description and classification

See also

References

External links