Dimorphodontidae
Dimorphodontids | |
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Skeletal reconstruction of Dimorphodon macronyx, Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Order: | †Pterosauria |
Clade: | † Macronychoptera
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Family: | †Dimorphodontidae Seeley, 1870
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Genera | |
Dimorphodontidae (or dimorphodontids) is a group of early "rhamphorhynchoid" pterosaurs named after Dimorphodon, that lived in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic. 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.[1][2][3]
Dimorphodontidae was named in 1870 by
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. According to the analysis published by Andres et al., Dimorphodontia is also a small group, including only Dimorphodon and Parapsicephalus.[6]
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.[2]
References
- OCLC 842919760.
- ^ S2CID 51984440.
- S2CID 38933265.
- ^ Seeley, H.G. 1870. "Remarks on Prof. Owen's Monograph on Dimorphodon". Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 4, 6: 129.
- ^ 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
- PMID 24768054.