Boreopteridae

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Family of pteranodontoid pterosaurs

title: "Boreopteridae" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["pteranodontoidea", "reptile-families", "barremian-reptiles", "yixian-formation", "reptiles-of-china"] description: "Family of pteranodontoid pterosaurs" topic_path: "geography/china" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreopteridae" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Family of pteranodontoid pterosaurs ::

| display_parents = 3 | taxon = Boreopteridae | name = Boreopterids | fossil_range = Early Cretaceous, | image = Zhenyuanopterus skeletal.png | image_caption = Skeletal diagram of Zhenyuanopterus | type_species = Boreopterus cuiae | type_species_authority = Lü & Ji, 2005 | authority = Lü et al., 2006 | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision =

Boreopteridae (meaning "northern wings") is a group of pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China.

Classification

In 2006, Lü Junchang and colleagues named the clade Boreopteridae for the clade containing the common ancestor of Boreopterus and Feilongus and all its descendants, which the authors reclassified as close relatives of the ornithocheirids. (Feilongus had originally been considered a gallodactylid). Many possible boreopterids were subsequently described, one possible example being Aetodactylus, which has been claimed to be similar to Boreopterus. Originally considered close relatives of the ornithocheirids, many of these supposed boreopterids have been found to belong to other groups of the pterodactyloid lineage. In 2012, a phylogenetic analysis by Lü et al. divided the Boreopteridae into two subfamilies: Boreopterinae, comprising Boreopterus and Zhenyuanopterus, and Moganopterinae, comprising Feilongus and Moganopterus. However, in 2013, Andres & Myers found both Boreopterus and Feilongus to be closely related to Cycnorhamphus, making them members of the Gallodactylidae as had been originally thought when Feilongus was discovered. A subsequent analysis including the other supposed boreopterids found that Boreopterus itself, and therefore the name Boreopteridae, was indeed a member of the ornithocheiroid clade, but that Feilongus was in fact a ctenochasmatoid closely related to Gnathosaurus. and was then found to contain just Boreopterus and Zhenyuanopterus by Wu and colleagues in 2017, a subsequently followed classification by recent studies.

Phylogeny

The Boreopteridae was included in an analysis by Brian Andres and colleagues in 2014, where it was placed in a basal position within the Anhangueria.

Topology 1: Andres et al. (2014). |label1=Anhangueria |1={{clade |label1=Boreopteridae |1={{clade |1=Guidraco |label2=Boreopterinae |2={{clade |1=Boreopterus |2=Zhenyuanopterus |2={{clade |1=Cearadactylus |2={{clade |1=Brasileodactylus |2={{clade |1=Ludodactylus |label2=Ornithocheirae |2={{clade |1=Anhangueridae |2=Ornithocheiridae Topology 2: Longrich et al. (2018). |label1=Ornithocheiromorpha |1={{clade |1=Hongshanopterus |2={{clade |1={{clade |label1=Lonchodectidae |1={{clade |1=Lonchodraco |2=Lonchodectes |label2=Boreopteridae |2={{clade |1=Boreopterus |2=Zhenyuanopterus |label2=Lanceodontia |2={{clade |1=Istiodactylidae |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Aetodactylus |2=Cimoliopterus |2=Anhangueria

Paleoecology

The known taxa come from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning, which represented a lake system, suggesting that these animals occurred in freshwater habitats. They are thought to have foraged while swimming, trapping prey with their needle-like teeth; this method of fishing was probably analogous to that of Platanista dolphins, which share a similar dentition.

References

References

  1. Junchang, Lü. (2006). "Pterosaurs from China". Geological Publishing House.
  2. Myers, Timothy S.. (2010). "A new ornithocheirid pterosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Turonian) Eagle Ford Group of Texas". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
  3. (2012). "Largest Toothed Pterosaur Skull from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Western Liaoning, China, with Comments On the Family Boreopteridae". Acta Geologica Sinica.
  4. (2013). "Lone Star Pterosaurs". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
  5. (2014). "The Earliest Pterodactyloid and the Origin of the Group". Current Biology.
  6. (2017). "The toothless pterosaur ''Jidapterus edentus'' (Pterodactyloidea: Azhdarchoidea) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota and its paleoecological implications". PLOS ONE.
  7. (December 2019). "''Ferrodraco lentoni'' gen. et sp. nov., a new ornithocheirid pterosaur from the Winton Formation (Cenomanian–lower Turonian) of Queensland, Australia". Scientific Reports.
  8. 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]]
  9. (2020). "A taxonomic and phylogenetic review of the anhanguerid pterosaur group Coloborhynchinae and the new clade Tropeognathinae". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
  10. [http://www.markwitton.com/#/sample-chapter/4552907932 Mark Witton, 2011]

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pteranodontoideareptile-familiesbarremian-reptilesyixian-formationreptiles-of-china