Hongshanopterus

Hongshanopterus; Temporal range: Aptian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Pterosauria
Suborder:	†Pterodactyloidea
Clade:	†Lanceodontia
Clade:	†Istiodactyliformes
Genus:	†Hongshanopterus; Wang X. et al., 2008
Species:	†H. lacustris
Binomial name
	†Hongshanopterus lacustris; Wang X. et al., 2008

Hongshanopterus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, China.^[1]

The type species Hongshanopterus lacustris was in 2008 named and described by Wang Xiaolin, Diogenes de Almeida Campos, Zhou Zhonghe and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner. The generic name combines a reference to the Hongshan culture in Lioaning with a Latinised Greek pteron, "wing". The specific name means "of the lake" in Latin, referring to the lake deposits the fossil was found in, at Dapinfang.^[1]

Hongshanopterus is based on the holotype IVPP V14582, found in a layer of the Jiufotang Formation dating from the Aptian, It consists of a skull and five neck vertebrae of a single subadult individual.^[1]

The wingspan of Hongshanopterus was estimated at 1.8 to 1.9 meters. It possessed a relatively high number of teeth, about thirty-six for both upper jaws combined. The teeth were robust and had triangular crowns which were flattened from mouth side to "lip" side, like those of other istiodactylids. The pterygoid bone had a ridge at the underside, pointing obliquely to the front and the outside.^[1]

Hongshanopterus was in 2008 placed in the Istiodactylidae, in a basal position. It was less derived than other istiodactylids by having a tooth row that extended beyond the first third of the skull, and by having some teeth that were directed backwards.^[1]

Classification

The cladogram below follows Witton's 2012 analysis:^[2]

Pterodactylus antiquus

Pteranodon longiceps

Coloborhynchus spielbergi

Hongshanopterus lacustris

Haopterus gracilis

Istiodactylidae

Nurhachius ignaciobritoi

Longchengpterus zhaoi

	Istiodactylus latidens

	Istiodactylus sinensis

	Liaoxipterus brachyognathus

The cladogram below is a topology recovered by Kellner et al. (2019). In the analyses, they recovered Hongshanopterus as the sister taxon of the family Istiodactylidae, and placed within the more inclusive group Istiodactyliformes.^[3]^[4]

Istiodactyliformes

Mimodactylidae

	Haopterus

	Mimodactylus

Hongshanopterus

Istiodactylidae

Nurhachius

Istiodactylinae

	Istiodactylus

	Liaoxipterus

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Xiaolin Wang; Diogenes de Almeida Campos; Zhonghe Zhou; Alexander W.A. Kellner (2008). "A primitive istiodactylid pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea) from the Jiufotang Formation (Early Cretaceous), northeast China". Zootaxa. 1813: 1–18. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1813.1.1.
^ Witton, Mark P. (2012). "New Insights into the Skull of Istiodactylus latidens (Ornithocheiroidea, Pterodactyloidea)". PLOS ONE. 7 (3): e33170. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...733170W. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033170. PMC 3310040. PMID 22470442.
^ Rodrigo V. Pêgas, Borja Holgado & Maria Eduarda C. Leal (2019) On Targaryendraco wiedenrothi gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids, Historical Biology, doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1690482
^ Kellner, Alexander W. A.; Caldwell, Michael W.; Holgado, Borja; Vecchia, Fabio M. Dalla; Nohra, Roy; Sayão, Juliana M.; Currie, Philip J. (2019). "First complete pterosaur from the Afro-Arabian continent: insight into pterodactyloid diversity". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 17875. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-54042-z. PMC 6884559. PMID 31784545.