Pterodactyloidea

Pterodactyloidea is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs, and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles. They appeared during the middle Jurassic Period, and differ from the basal rhamphorhynchoids by their short tails and long wing metacarpals. The most advanced forms also lack teeth, and by the late Cretaceous, all known pterodactyloids were toothless. Many species had well-developed crests on the skull, a form of display taken to extremes in giant-crested forms like Nyctosaurus and Tupandactylus. Pterodactyloids were the last surviving pterosaurs when the order became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, together with the non-avian dinosaurs and most marine reptiles.

Pterodactyloidea

régine debatty Public domain (uploaded by User:Gadfium ) Helder da Rocha User:Ghedoghedo User:Ghedoghedo Henk Caspers… · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PterosauriaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 66 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 3 of 631 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 69 of 631 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 307 of 631 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 252 of 631 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 631 occurrences170–167 Mya — about 1 occurrence167–163 Mya — about 2 occurrences163–160 Mya — about 1 occurrence160–156 Mya — about 2 occurrences156–153 Mya — about 4 occurrences153–149 Mya — about 21 occurrences149–145 Mya — about 31 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 15 occurrences142–138 Mya — about 13 occurrences138–135 Mya — about 13 occurrences135–131 Mya — about 11 occurrences131–128 Mya — about 6 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 25 occurrences124–121 Mya — about 46 occurrences121–117 Mya — about 43 occurrences117–114 Mya — about 46 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 13 occurrences110–106 Mya — about 8 occurrences106–103 Mya — about 44 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 44 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 41 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 28 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 11 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 17 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 38 occurrences82–78 Mya — about 20 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 20 occurrences75–71 Mya — about 23 occurrences71–67 Mya — about 29 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 12 occurrences165.3 Mya72.2 Mya170 Mya64 Mya

631 occurrences of Pterodactyloidea on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

631 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

170 formations

West Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.20°N, 0.13°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.21°N, 0.16°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 51.99°N, 0.36°WWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.16°N, 0.00°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.04°N, 0.15°WWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.08°N, 0.05°WWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.50°N, 0.25°WWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.14°N, 0.08°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.13°N, 0.04°ERomualdo — 7.18°S, 39.73°WRomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WRomualdo — 7.97°S, 39.43°WRomualdo — 7.52°S, 39.57°WNiobrara — 38.80°N, 100.87°WNiobrara — 39.12°N, 100.02°WNiobrara — 38.91°N, 101.27°WNiobrara — 38.91°N, 101.24°WNiobrara — 39.42°N, 99.83°WNiobrara — 38.82°N, 100.72°WNiobrara — 39.07°N, 99.82°WNiobrara — 39.37°N, 99.70°WNiobrara — 38.83°N, 100.12°WNiobrara — 39.37°N, 99.93°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 100.67°WNiobrara — 39.33°N, 99.60°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 100.33°WNiobrara — 38.77°N, 100.77°WNiobrara — 38.73°N, 101.17°WNiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 38.64°N, 100.17°WNiobrara — 38.88°N, 100.24°WNiobrara — 39.07°N, 99.04°WJiufotang — 40.59°N, 119.43°EJiufotang — 41.42°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.44°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.16°EJiufotang — 41.43°N, 120.04°EJiufotang — 41.53°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 40.91°N, 119.50°EJiufotang — 40.81°N, 119.80°EJiufotang — 40.65°N, 119.69°EYixian — 41.60°N, 120.87°EYixian — 41.13°N, 121.14°EYixian — 41.60°N, 120.84°EYixian — 41.47°N, 121.19°EYixian — 41.49°N, 119.00°EYixian — 41.80°N, 120.77°EYixian — 41.24°N, 119.40°EYixian — 41.63°N, 121.65°EYixian — 40.65°N, 119.68°EYixian — 42.14°N, 120.97°EPierre Shale — 43.88°N, 102.25°WPierre Shale — 43.67°N, 103.45°WPierre Shale — 43.22°N, 103.45°WPierre Shale — 43.41°N, 103.31°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 103.30°WPierre Shale — 43.38°N, 104.23°WPierre Shale — 43.30°N, 103.82°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 104.22°WWessex — 50.62°N, 1.37°WWessex — 50.66°N, 1.13°WWessex — 50.65°N, 1.47°WWessex — 50.65°N, 1.45°WCrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WCrato — 7.00°S, 39.00°WIfezouane — 31.53°N, 4.67°WIfezouane — 30.88°N, 3.86°WIfezouane — 31.61°N, 4.30°WIfezouane — 31.80°N, 4.25°WIfezouane — 31.59°N, 4.18°WToolebuc — 20.88°S, 143.80°EToolebuc — 22.92°S, 140.58°EToolebuc — 22.87°S, 140.72°EToolebuc — 22.67°S, 141.50°EToolebuc — 20.43°S, 142.93°EToolebuc — 20.64°S, 143.10°EJavelina — 29.40°N, 103.20°WJavelina — 29.25°N, 103.25°WJavelina — 29.29°N, 103.53°WCouche III — 32.88°N, 6.62°WCouche III — 32.83°N, 6.23°WCouche III — 32.92°N, 6.65°WSolnhofen — 48.99°N, 11.20°ESolnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.18°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ELianmuqin — 46.04°N, 85.79°ELianmuqin — 46.10°N, 85.67°ELianmuqin — 43.55°N, 87.26°EKhodzhakul — 42.33°N, 60.17°EKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EKhodzhakul — 42.37°N, 60.03°EMorrison — 41.88°N, 106.08°WMorrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 105.21°WMorrison — 39.17°N, 108.77°WTsagaantsav — 45.30°N, 101.62°ETsagaantsav — 48.75°N, 92.60°EIlek — 56.53°N, 91.81°EIlek — 55.90°N, 87.96°EIlek — 55.97°N, 88.09°EIlek — 55.88°N, 88.32°ERybushka — 51.35°N, 45.04°ERybushka — 52.47°N, 44.93°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°ELower Bauxite — 46.95°N, 22.40°ETwo Medicine — 48.65°N, 112.97°WTwo Medicine — 47.77°N, 112.29°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 48.07°N, 113.00°WKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WVaca Muerta — 39.21°S, 70.09°WVaca Muerta — 38.82°S, 70.20°WTendaguru — 9.68°S, 39.22°E

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The named rock units Pterodactyloidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 146 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 91 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pterodactyloidea and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Pterodactyloidea and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,473 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 426 sites for Pterodactyloidea, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

377 references

Each of the 631 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 365 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Pterodactyloidea

Credit
régine debatty Public domain (uploaded by User:Gadfium ) Helder da Rocha User:Ghedoghedo User:Ghedoghedo Henk Caspers…
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pterodactyloidea was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPterosauria through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Plieninger 1901)