Tapejaromorpha

Tapejaromorpha
Temporal range:
Early Cretaceous - Late Cretaceous, 125–85 Ma
Fossil specimen of Sinopterus dongi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Pterosauria
Suborder: Pterodactyloidea
Clade: Neoazhdarchia
Clade: Tapejaromorpha
Andres et al., 2014
Subgroups

Tapejaromorpha is a group of pterosaurs within the clade Azhdarchoidea. The fossil remains of tapejaromorphs dated back to the Cretaceous period.

The Tapejaromorpha was defined in 2014 by Andres and colleagues. They made Tapejaromorpha the most inclusive clade containing Tapejara but not Quetzalcoatlus.[1] Martill and Naish had previously proposed this same definition for Tapejaridae, but did not formalize it.[2] Andres and colleagues instead defined Tapejaridae more narrowly, as the clade Tapejara + Sinopterus.[1]

 Azhdarchoidea 

In the 2024 description of Torukjara, Pêgas recovered the following relationships for the Tapejaromorpha, and erected the new clade Tapejariformes to encompass caupedactylians and tapejarids:[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Andres, B.; Clark, J.; Xu, X. (2014). "The Earliest Pterodactyloid and the Origin of the Group". Current Biology. 24: 1011–6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.030. PMID 24768054.
  2. ^ Martill, D.M.; Naish, D. (2006). "Cranial crest development in the azhdarchoid pterosaur Tupuxuara, with a review of the genus and tapejarid monophyly". Palaeontology. 49: 925–941. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00575.x.
  3. ^ Pêgas, Rodrigo V. (2024-06-10). "A taxonomic note on the tapejarid pterosaurs from the Pterosaur Graveyard site (Caiuá Group, ?Early Cretaceous of Southern Brazil): evidence for the presence of two species". Historical Biology: 1–22. doi:10.1080/08912963.2024.2355664. ISSN 0891-2963.