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The relative size of the hands and feet in pterosaurs (by comparison with modern animals such as birds) may indicate the type of lifestyle pterosaurs led on the ground. Azhdarchid pterosaurs had relatively small feet compared to their body size and leg length, with foot length only about 25–30% the length of the lower leg.
Pterodactylus (from Ancient Greek: πτεροδάκτυλος, romanized: pterodáktylos ' winged finger ' [2]) is a genus of extinct pterosaurs.It is thought to contain only a single species, Pterodactylus antiquus, which was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile and one of the first prehistoric reptiles to ever be discovered.
Pterodactyloids were the last surviving pterosaurs when the order became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, together with the non-avian dinosaurs and most marine reptiles. " Pterodactyl " is also a common term for pterodactyloid pterosaurs, though it can also be used to refer to Pterodactylus specifically.
Different phylogenetic analyses found it as a basal pterosauromorph, [4] [5] a non-aphanosaurian, non-pterosaur basal avemetatarsalian, a basal dinosauromorph, [11] or a basal archosauriform. [12] This has resulted in a large gap between the fully aerial pterosaurs and their terrestrial ancestors, as the earliest pterosaurs were already capable ...
Quetzalcoatlus (/ k ɛ t s əl k oʊ ˈ æ t l ə s /) is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous in North America. The type specimen, recovered in 1971 from the Javelina Formation of Texas, United States, consists of several wing fragments and was described as Quetzalcoatlus northropi in 1975 by Douglas Lawson.
The split between dinosaurs and pterosaurs occurred just after aphanosaurs branched off the archosaur family tree. This split corresponds to the subgroup Ornithodira ( Ancient Greek ὄρνις ( órnis , “bird”) + δειρή ( deirḗ , “throat”), defined as the last common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and all of its descendants.
Pteranodon (/ t ə ˈ r æ n ə d ɒ n /; from Ancient Greek: πτερόν, romanized: pteron ' wing ' and ἀνόδων, anodon ' toothless ') [2] [better source needed] is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with P. longiceps having a wingspan of over 6 m (20 ft).
Ornithocheiromorpha (from Ancient Greek, meaning "bird hand form") is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Fossil remains of this group date back from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods (Valanginian to Turonian stages), around 140 to 92.5 million years ago.