''Luopterus'' (meaning " Lü Junchang's wing") is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of anurognathid

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the Order (biology), order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cre ...

containing only the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

species ''L. mutoudengensis'' that is known from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations ...

Tiaojishan Formation The Tiaojishan Formation is a geological formation in Hebei and Liaoning, People's Republic of China, dating to the middle-late Jurassic period (Bathonian- Oxfordian stages). It is known for its exceptionally preserved fossils, including those of ...

of Qinglong, northern

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

Province, China. It was originally named as a species of ''

Dendrorhynchoides ''Dendrorhynchoides'' was a genus of anurognathid pterosaur containing only the holotype species ''D. curvidentatus'' that is known from the Middle Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of Qinglong, northern Hebei Province, China. The genus was first ...

'' in 2012 but it was moved to the genus ''Luopterus'' in 2020. ''Luopterus'' was originally thought to be 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 Pr ...

, with a wingspan that is about , making it one of the smallest known pterosaurs.

History

In 2010 the discovery of the holotype, a juvenile, was announced, that proved that a more elongated tail was present after all, albeit not so long as the faked tail of the holotype of ''

'' (the animal it was first assigned to): about 85% of femur length. This specimen eventually was designated as the holotype of a new species, ''Dendrorhynchoides mutoudengensis'', by Hone and Lü in 2012. The specimen was originally stored in the Guilin Geological Museum and designated GLGMV 0002; later it was moved to the Jinzhou Paleontological Museum and designated JZMP-04-07-3. In 2020, Hone recognized that ''D. mutoudengensis'' was as distinct from ''D. curvidentatus'' as other species of anurognathids were from each other, and elevated it to a new genus and combination ''Luopterus mutoudengensis'', named after the late Lü Junchang.

Classification

In 2021, a

phylogenetic analysis In biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that pro ...

conducted by Xuefang Wei and colleagues recovered ''Luopterus'' within the subfamily Anurognathinae, a subfamily within the family

Anurognathidae Anurognathidae is a family of small, short-tailed pterosaurs that lived in Europe, Asia, and possibly North America during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Five genera are known: ''Anurognathus'', from the Late Jurassic of Germany; ''Jeholopt ...

. Within this subfamily, ''Luopterus'' was in more derived position than ''Dendrorhynchoides''. Below is a cladogram representing their phylogenetic analysis:

References

{{Portal bar, Paleontology, China Monofenestratans Pterosaurs of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2020