Cearadactylus
| Cearadactylus | |
|---|---|
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| Fossil specimen | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Clade: | †Anhangueria |
| Family: | †Anhangueridae |
| Subfamily: | †Anhanguerinae |
| Genus: | †Cearadactylus Leonardi & Borgomanero, 1985 |
| Species: | †C. atrox
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| Binomial name | |
| †Cearadactylus atrox Leonardi & Borgomanero, 1985
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Cearadactylus is a
pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Romualdo Formation of Brazil, South America. Fossil remains of Cearadactylus dated back to the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous period, about 112 million years ago. The only known species is C. atrox, described and named in 1985 by Giuseppe Leonardi and Guido Borgomanero. The name refers to the Brazilian state Ceará, and combines this with Greek daktylos, "finger", a reference to the wing finger of pterosaurs. The Latin
atrox means "frightful", a reference to the fearsome dentition of the species.
Discovery
The
Araripe plateau of northeastern Brazil. It consists of a single skull with a length of 57 centimeters (1.87 ft).[1]
It was traded to Italy in 1983 and bought by Borgomanero for his collection. The skull is severely damaged, especially on the top, and was perhaps reconstructed by the fossil dealer.
As shown by a later preparation by the Brazilian
teeth suggested a piscivorous diet, allowing the animal to keep hold of slippery fish. No crests seemed to be present. The new preparation made clear that a crest was present on the snout and that the rosette was a lot smaller. Many details were discovered that were useful in determining the phylogenetic position of Cearadactylus.[2]
In 1993,
fossil traders
; it is uncertain whether they belong to the same individual or indeed to the same species. Dalla Vecchia was himself not convinced the new species in fact belonged to Cearadactylus, but the skull was not sufficiently unique to base its own genus on yet still too different from known species to be assigned to them, so he created a new species for the genus the fossil most resembled. Later authors have consistently denied the identity referring to the taxon as "Cearadactylus" ligabuei.
Dalla Vecchia estimated the wingspan of "C." ligabuei at 6 meters (20 ft); Kellner, pointing out that the skull is not larger than the C. atrox holotype, estimated it at 5 meters (16 ft) at the most. Dalla Vecchia assigned C. ligabuei to the Cearadactylidae. Kellner concluded it was probably a member of Anhangueridae; Unwin in 2002 even named it Anhanguera ligabuei.[3] In 2005, Steel et al. suggested that it was a Coloborhynchus ligabuei.[4]
Description
The wingspan of Cearadactylus was by the describers estimated to have been around 4 meters (13 ft),[5] with a weight of perhaps 15 kilograms (33 lb).[1] Peter Wellnhofer in 1991 estimated a wingspan of 5.5 meters (18 ft).[6]
Classification
Leonardi did abstain from assigning the genus to a family. Wellnhofer created a special family called
cladistic analysis the position of Cearadactylus in the phylogenetic tree. Although the three resulting trees differed, all had in common that Cearadactylus was close to the Anhangueridae. In 2012, Pereda-Suberbiola et al. found Cearadactylus within the group Ctenochasmatoidea, part of a polytomy that also comprises Gnathosaurus and Ardeadactylus (identified as Pterodactylus longicolum in the analysis).[7] Subsequent recent analysis however, have found Cearadactylus as a member of the group Anhangueria, and depending on the different analyses, Cearadactylus is either placed in a more derived or basal position.[8][9][10] A phylogenetic analysis by Pentland et al. in 2019 for example, had found Cearadactylus in a derived position within the Anhangueria, just outside the Ornithocheirae, which, by their definition, is the clade that contains the families Ornithocheiridae and Anhangueridae. Their cladogram is shown on the left.[10] Other studies however, have concluded that Cearadactylus is a member of the family Anhangueridae, more specifically a member of the subfamily Anhanguerinae, sister taxon to Maaradactylus.[11][12][13][14] The cladogram on the right shows a topology made by Borja Holgado and Rodrigo Pêgas in 2020.[15]
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Topology 1: Pentland et al. (2019).[10]
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Topology 2: Holgado & Pêgas (2020).[15]
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See also
References
- ^ a b Leonardi, G. & Borgomanero, G. (1985). "Cearadactylus atrox nov. gen., nov. sp.: novo Pterosauria (Pterodactyloidea) da Chapada do Araripe, Ceara, Brasil." Resumos dos communicaçoes VIII Congresso bras. de Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 27: 75–80.
- ^ Bruno C. Vila Nova, Alexander W.A. Kellner, Juliana M. Sayão, 2010, "Short Note on the Phylogenetic Position of Cearadactylus Atrox, and Comments Regarding Its Relationships to Other Pterosaurs", Acta Geoscientica Sinica 31 Supp.1: 73–75
- ^ a b Unwin, D. M. (2002). "On the systematic relationships of Cearadactylus atrox, an enigmatic Early Cretaceous pterosaur from the Santana Formation of Brazil". Mitteilungen Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Geowissenschaftlichen Reihe. 5: 1239–263.
- doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2005.03.005.)
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
- ISBN 9780861015665.
- S2CID 129917510.
- PMID 24768054.
- ^ Longrich, N.R., Martill, D.M., and Andres, B. (2018). Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. PLoS Biology, 16(3): e2001663.
- ^ PMID 31582757.
- PMID 31784545.
- PMID 31432888.
- ^ Pêgas, R.V., Holgado, B., Leal, M.E.C., 2019. "On Targaryendraco wiedenrothi gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids", Historical Biology, 1–15. doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1690482
- ^ .
Further reading
- Dalla Vecchia, F. M. (1993), "Cearadactylus? ligabuei, nov. sp., a new Early Cretaceous (Aptian) pterosaur from Chapada do Araripe (Northeastern Brazil)", Bolletini della Societa Paleontologica Italiano, 32: 401–409
