Germanodactylidae

Germanodactylidae is a controversial group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. It was first named by Yang Zhongjian in 1964, and given a formal phylogenetic definition in 2014 by Brian Andres, James Clark, and Xu Xing. They defined it as the least inclusive clade containing Germanodactylus cristatus and Normannognathus wellnhoferi, which they considered to be close relatives at the time.^[1] However, more recent studies by the same researchers have found that these pterosaurs may be only distantly related.

Germanodactylids Temporal range: Late Jurassic PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Fossil specimen of Germanodactylus cristatus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Pterosauria
Suborder:	†Pterodactyloidea
Infraorder:	†Archaeopterodactyloidea
Family:	†Germanodactylidae Yang, 1964
Type species
†Pterodactylus cristatus Wiman, 1925
Subgroups
†Altmuehlopterus? †Germanodactylus †Tendaguripterus?

Studies performed in the 2000s suggested this group it contained three genera: Germanodactylus, Normannognathus and Tendaguripterus. Various studies have since placed these pterosaurs within the larger clades Archaeopterodactyloidea,^[1][2][3] Eupterodactyloidea, or Dsungaripteroidea,^[4] though it has also been recovered within the Ctenochasmatoidea.^[5] In several 2010s studies, the supposed "germanodactylid" species were not necessarily found to form a natural group with each other, and even the genus Germanodactylus itself was discovered to be likely paraphyletic, causing one of its component species to be renamed Altmuehlopterus. This would render the name Germanodactylidae synonymous with some other clade, such as Archaeopterodactyloidea or Lophocratia.^[3][6]

Korean Late Cretaceous pterosaur tracks have been interpreted as belonging to a Germanodactylus-like taxon.^[7]

Classification

Below is a cladogram showing the results of a phylogenetic analysis presented by Longrich, Martill, and Andres, 2018.^[3]

Archaeopterodactyloidea	Germanodactylidae Germanodactylus cristatus Germanodactylus rhamphastinus  Euctenochasmatia Pterodactylus antiquus  Ctenochasmatoidea Gallodactylidae Cycnorhamphus suevicus Normannognathus wellnhoferi Ctenochasmatidae

References

1. Andres, Brian; Clark, James; Xu, Xing (May 2014). "The Earliest Pterodactyloid and the Origin of the Group". Current Biology. 24 (9): 1011–1016. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.030. PMID 24768054.
2. Chachere, Vickie (April 24, 2014). "International Scientific Team Discovers, Names Oldest Pterodactyloid Species". USF News.
3. Longrich, Nicholas R.; Martill, David M.; Andres, Brian (13 March 2018). "Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary". PLOS Biology. 16 (3): e2001663. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2001663. PMC 5849296. PMID 29534059.
4. Fastnacht, Michael (2005). "The first dsungaripterid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian of Germany and the biomechanics of pterosaur long bones". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 50 (2): 273–288. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.728.6736.
5. Lü, Junchang; Ji, Qiang (2006). "Preliminary results of a phylogenetic analysis of the pterosaurs from western Liaoning and surrounding areas". Journal of the Paleontological Society of Korea. 22 (1): 239–261. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.694.4816. S2CID 86267829.
6. Vidovic, Steven U.; Martill, David M. (2018). "The taxonomy and phylogeny of Diopecephalus kochi (Wagner, 1837) and Germanodactylus rhamphastinus (Wagner, 1851)". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 455 (1): 125–147. Bibcode:2018GSLSP.455..125V. doi:10.1144/SP455.12. S2CID 219204038.
7. Jung, Jongyun; Huh, Min; Unwin, David M.; Smyth, Robert S. H.; Hwang, Koo-Geun; Kim, Hyun-Joo; Choi, Byung-Do; Xing, Lida (23 June 2022). "Evidence for a mixed-age group in a pterosaur footprint assemblage from the early Upper Cretaceous of Korea". Scientific Reports. 12 (1): 10707. Bibcode:2022NatSR..1210707J. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-14966-5. PMC 9226182. PMID 35739247. S2CID 249989122.