Brasileodactylus

Brasileodactylus a genus of pterosaur from the Aptian-age (Early Cretaceous period) lower Santana formation of Chapada do Araripe, Ceará, Brazil.

Brasileodactylus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 112 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Suborder: †Pterodactyloidea
Clade: †Lanceodontia
Clade: †Ornithocheirae
Clade: †Anhangueria
Genus: †Brasileodactylus
Kellner, 1984
Type species
†Brasileodactylus araripensis
Kellner, 1984

The genus was named by paleontologist Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner in 1984. The genus name means 'pterosaur (literally, [wing] "finger") from Brazil'. The type species is Brasileodactylus araripensis. The specific name refers to the Araripe Plateau. The holotype, MN 4804-V, is the front part of a mandible.

Later remains referred to Brasileodactylus include SMNS 55414, a mandible, and MN 4797–V, the front of a snout and mandible. More complete fossils are BSP 1991 I 27, a fragmentary skeleton, and AMNH 24444, a 429 mm (16.9 in) long skull, with mandible and proximal left wing. The last two specimens have been assigned to a Brasileodactylus sp. indet. by André Jacques Veldmeijer. However, some of the more complete specimens may belong to other pterosaurs, such as Barbosania.[1]

Description

Brasileodactylus was a medium-sized pterosaur with a wingspan of approximately 4 m (13 ft). It had a long pointed snout and conical teeth that in the extreme front of the jaws were long, thin and forward pointing. Unlike some other Brazilian pterosaurs it had no crest on the snout or lower jaw but might have had one on the back of the skull.[2]

Classification

Kellner first assigned Brasileodactylus to the Ornithocheiridae. In 1991 he changed that to a more cautious Pterodactyloidea incertae sedis. In 2000 he affirmed a close affinity to the Anhangueridae. David Unwin in 2001 considered the form part of Anhanguera but later retracted. Eberhard Frey in 2003 thought it was a species of Coloborhynchus. In 2007 Unwin and David Martill suggested Ludodactylus was a junior synonym of Brasileodactylus.

Below is a cladogram showing the results of a phylogenetic analysis presented by Andres et al., 2014.[3]

 Pteranodontoidea 
 

Pteranodon

 
Ornithocheiromorpha
 

Hongshanopterus

 
 
 

Lonchodectes

 
Lanceodontia
 

Istiodactylidae

 
Anhangueria
 

Boreopteridae

 
 
 

Cearadactylus

 
 
 

Brasileodactylus

 
 
 

Ludodactylus

 
Ornithocheirae
 

Anhangueridae

 
 

Ornithocheiridae

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

See also

References
  1. Elgin, R. A.; Frey, E. (2011). "A new ornithocheirid, Barbosania gracilirostris gen. et sp. nov. (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from the Santana Formation (Cretaceous) of NE Brazil". Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. 130 (2): 259–275. doi:10.1007/s13358-011-0017-4.
  2. Veldmeijer, A.J., Meijer, H.J.M. & Signore, M. (2009). "Description of Pterosaurian (Pterodactyloidea: Anhangueridae, Brasileodactylus) remains from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil". DEINSEA. 13: 9–40.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  3. Andres, B.; Clark, J.; Xu, X. (2014). "The Earliest Pterodactyloid and the Origin of the Group". Current Biology. 24: 1011–6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.030. PMID 24768054.

Further reading
  • Kellner, A. W. A. (1984). "Ocorrência de uma mandibula de pterosauria (Brasileodactylus araripensis, nov. gen.; nov. sp.) na Formação Santana, Cretáceo da Chapada do Araripe, Ceará-Brasil." Anais XXXIII Cong. Brasil. de Geol, 578–590. Rio de Janeiro
  • Frey, E. & Martill, D. M. (1994). "A new Pterosaur from the Crato Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Aptian) of Brazil." Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Paläontology, Abhandlungen. 194: 379–412
  • Sayão, J. M. & Kellner, A. W. A. (2000). "Description of a pterosaur rostrum from the Crato Member, Santana Formation (Aptian-Albian) northeastern, Brazil." Boletim do Museu Nacional, 54: 1-8
  • Kellner, A. W. A. and Tomida., Y. (2000). "Description of a new species of Anhangueridae (Pterodactyloidea) with comments on the pterosaur fauna from the Santana Formation (Aptian -Albian), Northeastern Brazil." National Science Museum Monographs No. 17, National Science Museum, Tokyo: 1-135
  • Veldmeijer, A. J. (2003). "Preliminary description of a skull and wing of a Brazilian lower Cretaceous (Santana Formation; Aptian-Albian) pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea) in the collection of the AMNH." PalArch, series vertebrate palaeontology: 1-13
  • Veldmeijer, A. J. (2006). "Toothed pterosaurs from the Santana Formation (Cretaceous; Aptian–Albian) of northeastern Brazil." (Doctoral dissertation, Utrecht University, 2006). Proefschrift Universiteit Utrecht, 1-269
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