Elanodactylus (lat.) Is a genus of pterosaurs from the ctenochasmatid family found in the Lower Cretaceous sediments ( Barremian – Lower Aptian tiers, 129.4–122.46 Ma ago [1] ) in , Liaoning ( China ).
| † Elanodactylus |
| Scientific classification |
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| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
| Infraclass : | Archosauromorphs |
| No rank : | Archosauriformes |
| Treasure : | † Pterosaurromorphs ( Pterosauromorpha Padian, 1997 ) |
| Superfamily : | † Archaeopterodactyloidea |
| Treasure : | † Ctenochasmatoidea |
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| International scientific name |
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Elanodactylus Andres & Ji, 2008 |
| Single view |
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† Elanodactylus prolatus
Andres & Ji, 2008 |
Geochronology129.4–122.46 Ma | million years | Period | Era | Aeon |
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| 2,588 | Even | | | Ka | F
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th | | 23.03 | Neogene | | 66.0 | Paleogen | | 145.5 | a piece of chalk | M
e
s
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s
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th | | 199.6 | Yura | | 251 | Triassic | | 299 | Permian | P
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e
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th | | 359.2 | Carbon | | 416 | Devonian | | 443.7 | Silur | | 488.3 | Ordovician | | 542 | Cambrian | | 4570 | Precambrian |
◄ Nowadays◄ Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction◄ Triassic extinction◄ Mass Permian Extinction◄ Devonian extinction◄ Ordovician-Silurian extinction◄ Cambrian explosion |
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In 2008, the species was named Brian Andres and Ji Qiang. The typical and only species is Elanodactylus prolatus . The name of the genus comes from the English. Elanus is a species of kite , meaning long wings, and buckwheat. δάκτυλος - “finger”, with reference to the wing finger, typical of pterosaurs. The specific name means “elongated” in Latin and is given due to the elongated cervical vertebrae.
Known for the partial postcranial skeleton , the holotype NGMC 99-07-1 retained its wings, sternum, shoulder girdle, ribs, cervical and thoracic vertebrae. The wingspan was about 2.5 meters. The cervical vertebrae are similar to those found in azhdarchids (giant long-necked pterosaurs, most common in the Late Cretaceous), but their skeletons were different in the rest. Andres and Ji performed a phylogenetic analysis and found that Elanodactylus belongs to the ctenochasmatid family. They suggested that in azhdarchid and ctenochasmatid cervical vertebrae developed convergently [2] .