The Tapejarinae are edentulous pterosaurs that are relatively common in Cretaceous continental deposits in South America, North Africa, Europe, and China (mostly Early Cretaceous). The Chinese Jiufotang Formation is particularly rich in tapejarine specimens, having yielded over 10 described specimens and dozens of undescribed ones. For the Jiufotang Formation, a total of seven nominal tapejarid species and two genera have been proposed. Some debate exists over how many of those are valid or, alternatively, sexual or ontogenetic morphs of fewer (or even a single) species. Despite the abundance of specimens and the relevant taxonomic problems involved, detailed revisions of the matter are still lacking. This is partly due to the relatively scarce knowledge on the comparative osteology of the Sinopterus complex, which is hampered by the fact that most specimens have been only preliminarily described. In this contribution, we present a new postcranial specimen, D3072, which we attribute to the type-species of the genus, Sinopterus dongi. This new specimen helps shed some new light in the osteology of Sinopterus dongi, hopefully serving as a basis for future comparative studies involving further specimens and other proposed species and, subsequently, taxonomic revisions.
Anurognathids are an elusive group of diminutive, potentially arboreal pterosaurs. Even though their monophyly has been well-supported, their intrarelationships have been obscure, and their phylogenetic placement even more. In the present work, we present a new genus and species from the Middle-Late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation, the third nominal anurognathid species from the Jurassic of China. The new species provides new information concerning morphological diversity for the group. Furthermore, we provide a new phylogenetic analysis incorporating into a single data set characters from diverging phylogenetic proposals. Our results place them as the sister-group of Darwinoptera + Pterodactyloidea, as basal members of the Monofenestrata.
A new istiodactylid pterosaur, Nurhachius luei sp. nov., is here reported based on a complete skull with mandible and some cervical vertebrae from the lower part of the Jiufotang Formation of western Liaoning (China). This is the second species of Nurhachius, the type-species being N. ignaciobritoi from the upper part of the Jiufotang Formation. A revised diagnosis of the genus Nurhachius is provided, being this taxon characterized by the presence of a slight dorsal deflection of the palatal anterior tip, which is homoplastic with the Anhangueria and Cimoliopterus. N. luei sp. nov. shows an unusual pattern of tooth replacement, with respect to other pterodactyloid species. The relationships within the Istiodactylidae and with their closest taxa are investigated through a phylogenetic analysis by parsimony.
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