Chaoyangopterus is a genus of chaoyangopterid pterosaur known from a partial skeleton found in Liaoning, China. Chaoyangopterus was found in rocks dating back to the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Dapingfang, Chaoyang.
Etymology
Chaoyangopterus was named and described in 2003 by
Wang Xiaolin and
Zhou Zhonghe. The
type species is
Chaoyangopterus zhangi. The genus name is derived from Chaoyang and a Latinized Greek
pteron, "wing". The specific name honors
journalist Zhang Wanlian for his efforts in protecting fossil sites.
Description
Chaoyangopterus is based on
holotype IVPP V13397, which includes the front of the skull, the lower jaws, the neck
, the
shoulder girdle and
, and the limbs. The skull is about long and toothless, and its
wingspan is estimated to have been around . Wang and Zhou concluded that it compared most closely to
Nyctosaurus and classified it as a
nyctosauridae, although they found that its
Shinbone was proportionally longer compared to the
femur and
humerus in
Chaoyangopterus, that their animal had relatively shorter wings and longer legs than
Nyctosaurus, and that it still had four fingers.
Classification
The classification of
Chaoyangopterus has since become unsettled, with subsequent reviewers disagreeing with the nyctosaurid assessment.
David Unwin, in a popular work, included it without comment with the
Tapejaridae family of azhdarchoid pterosaurs,
David M. Unwin (2025). 013146308X, Pi Press. 013146308X
known for their large head crests. A detailed
phylogenetics analysis of Liaoning pterosaurs published by Lü Junchang and
Ji Qiang in 2006 found it instead to be a basal azhdarchoid of no particular familial affiliation.
However, subsequent analysis by Lü and Unwin found that within the Azhdarchoidea it formed a clade with several other forms such as
Jidapterus and
Shenzhoupterus, which they named Chaoyangopteridae.
Wang and Zhou, however, stated in 2006 that Chaoyangopterus was a member of the Pteranodontidae and that Jidapterus, Eoazhdarcho and Eopteranodon are subjective of the former.
Below are two showing the phylogenetic placement of Chaoyangopterus within the Azhdarchoidea. The one on the left is a topology by Felipe Pinheiro and colleagues in 2011, they recovered Chaoyangopterus within the family Tapejaridae, more specifically within a subfamily called Chaoyangopterinae, sister taxon to both Jidapterus and Shenzhoupterus.
Topology 1: Pinheiro and colleagues (2011).
Topology 2: Kellner and colleagues (2019).
Paleobiology
Chaoyangopterus is known to have been a toothless pterosaur and was assumed by Wang to have been a
piscivore or fish-eater, but other relevant details of its paleobiology will have to await a more detailed description. Chaoyangopterids in general are now thought to have been similar to
Azhdarchidae pterosaurs, implying that they were probably crane-like terrestrial omnivores and opportunistic carnivores.
See also
-
List of pterosaur genera
-
Timeline of pterosaur research
External links
