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Pteranodontians; Temporal range: Turonian–Maastrichtian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Skull specimen (AMNH 7515) of the pteranodontid Pteranodon longiceps
	Skull cast of the nyctosaurid Nyctosaurus gracilis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Pterosauria
Suborder:	†Pterodactyloidea
Clade:	†Pteranodontoidea
Clade:	†Pteranodontia; Marsh, 1887
Subgroups
	†Pteranodontidae; †Nyctosauromorpha Alamodactylus; Cretornis; †Aponyctosauria Alcione; Epapatelo; Simurghia; Nyctosauridae; ; ;
Synonyms
	Euornithocheira Unwin, 2003;

Pteranodontia is an extinct group of ornithocheiroid pterodactyloid pterosaurs. It lived during the Late Cretaceous (Turonian to Maastrichtian stages) of North America, South America, Europe and Africa.^[1] They were some of the most advanced pterosaurs, and possessed highly specialized cranial crests that may have served as sexual attraction, with males having a much larger crest.

Classification

Pteranodontia was originally named by Marsh in 1876. In 2003, it was given a phylogenetic definition by David Unwin as the common ancestor of Pteranodon and Nyctosaurus plus all its descendants. Though Marsh had originally named this group based on the shared absence of teeth in those species, most analyses show that all of the traditional "ornithocheiroid" pterosaurs are also members of this clade.

Below is a cladogram showing the phylogenetic placement of this group from Andres and Myers (2013).^[2]

Pteranodontia

Nyctosauridae

	Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis

	"Nyctosaurus" lamegoi

	Nyctosaurus gracilis

Alamodactylus byrdi

Pteranodontoidea

	Pteranodon longiceps

	Pteranodon sternbergi

Istiodactylidae

Longchengpterus zhaoi

Nurhachius ignaciobritoi

Liaoxipterus brachyognathus

	Istiodactylus latidens

	Istiodactylus sinensis

Lonchodectes compressirostris

Aetodactylus halli

Cearadactylus atrox

Brasileodactylus araripensis

Ludodactylus sibbicki

Ornithocheirae

Anhangueridae

Liaoningopterus gui

Anhanguera araripensis

Anhanguera blittersdorffi

	Anhanguera piscator

	Anhanguera santanae

Ornithocheiridae

Tropeognathus mesembrinus

Ornithocheirus simus

	Coloborhynchus clavirostris

	Coloborhynchus wadleighi

In 2018, Longrich, Martill, and Andres revisited the classification and proposed a different hypothesis based on a new phylogenetic analysis. Following Marsh's original classification, they restricted Pteranodontia to the families Pteranodontidae and Nyctosauridae. They also replaced Pteranodontia with Pteranodontoidea as the more inclusive group.^[1]

Ornithocheiroidea

Azhdarchoidea

Tapejaromorpha

Neoazhdarchia

Dsungaripteromorpha

	Dsungaripteridae

	Thalassodromidae

Neopterodactyloidea

	Azhdarchidae

	Chaoyangopteridae

Piksi barbarulna

Pteranodontoidea

Ornithocheiromorpha

Pteranodontia

Pteranodontidae

	Pteranodon sternbergi

	Pteranodon longiceps

Tethydraco regalis

Nyctosauridae

Alamodactylus byrdi

Volgadraco bogolubovi

Cretornis hlavaci

	Alcione elainus

	Simurghia robusta

Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis

	Barbaridactylus grandis

	Nyctosaurus lamegoi

	Nyctosaurus nanus

	Nyctosaurus gracilis

In 2022, Fernandes et al. described Epapatelo as a new pteranodontian from Angola. Including Epapatelo in the phylogenetic analysis of Longrich et al. (2018), they recovered a new clade, Aponyctosauria, composed of the Nyctosauridae, Alcione, Simurghia, and Epapatelo.^[3]

Pteranodontia

Tethydraco

	Pteranodon longiceps

	Pteranodon sternbergi (Geosternbergia)

Alamodactylus

Volgadraco

Cretornis

Aponyctosauria

	Epapatelo

	Simurghia

	Alcione

Nyctosauridae

Muzquizopteryx

	Nyctosaurus lamegoi

	Nyctosaurus grandis (Barbaridactylus)

	Nyctosaurus nanus

	Nyctosaurus gracilis

Paleobiology

Locomotion

Similar to other pterosaurs, pteranodontian are considered to have been skilled fliers as well as adept at moving on the ground. Evidence from footprints shows that most pterosaurs did not sprawl their limbs to a large degree, as in modern reptiles, but rather held the limbs relatively erect when walking, like dinosaurs. Footprints of pteranodontians are still unknown, but it is likely that they also walked erect.^[4] Among pterosaurs, pteranodontians had unusually uneven limb proportions, with the forelimbs much larger and longer than the hind limbs. This would likely have required them to use unique modes of locomotion when on the ground compared to other pterosaurs. Most pteranodontians like Pteranodon flew like modern day albatrosses, which consists of flying very long distances and rarely flapping,^[5]^[6] though they were thermal soarers like continental flyers rather than dynamic soarers like most seabirds.^[7]

"Wyomingopteryx"

The name "Wyomingopteryx" appears in a painting of Morrison prehistoric animals by Robert Bakker. However, this binomen is a nomen nudum, and it is possible that Bakker may have intended to coin "Wyomingopteryx" for the Istiodactylus-like specimen TATE 5999 because that specimen is found in Wyoming.^[8]^[9]

References

^ ^a ^b Longrich, N.R., Martill, D.M., and Andres, B. (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
^ Andres, B.; Myers, T. S. (2013). "Lone Star Pterosaurs". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 103 (3–4): 1. doi:10.1017/S1755691013000303. S2CID 84617119.
^ Fernandes, Alexandra E.; Mateus, Octávio; Andres, Brian; Polcyn, Michael J.; Schulp, Anne S.; Gonçalves, António Olímpio; Jacobs, Louis L. (2022). "Pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Angola". Diversity. 14 (9). 741. doi:10.3390/d14090741. hdl:10362/145845.
^ Witton, M.P.; Habib, M.B. (2010). "On the Size and Flight Diversity of Giant Pterosaurs, the Use of Birds as Pterosaur Analogues and Comments on Pterosaur Flightlessness". PLOS ONE. 5 (11): e13982. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...513982W. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013982. PMC 2981443. PMID 21085624.
^ Habib, M. (2011). "Dinosaur Revolution: Anhanguera." H2VP: Paleobiomechanics. Weblog entry, 20-SEP-2011. Accessed 28-SEP-2011: http://h2vp.blogspot.com/2011/09/dinosaur-revolution-anhanguera.html
^ Witton, Mark (2013). Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691150611.
^ Goto, Yusuke; Yoda, Ken; Weimerskirch, Henri; Sato, Katsufumi (2020). "Soaring styles of extinct giant birds and pterosaurs". bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2020.10.31.354605. S2CID 226263538.
^ Bakker, R.T. (1994) Unearthing the Jurassic. In: Science Year 1995. World Book Inc.:Chicago, London, Sydney, Toronto, 76-89. ISBN 0-7166-0595-3.
^ Bakker, R.T. (1998). "Dinosaur mid-life crisis: the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition in Wyoming and Colorado". In Lucas, Spencer G.; Kirkland, James I.; Estep, J.W. Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems 14. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. pp. 67–77.