Yixianopterus

Yixianopterus is a pterodactyloid pterosaur genus from the Barremian-Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China. It is known from a single specimen, holotype JZMP-V-12, housed at the Benxi Geological Museum. This specimen was doctored before acquisition, with much of the skull being fabricated.[1]

Yixianopterus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 124.6 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Pterosauria
Suborder:	†Pterodactyloidea
Clade:	†Istiodactyliformes
Genus:	†Yixianopterus Lü et al., 2006
Type species
†Yixianopterus jingangshanensis Lü et al., 2006

Classification

Lü et al. (2006) assigned Yixianopterus to the lophocratian family Lonchodectidae on the basis of dental characters, classifying it as the first Asian representative of Lonchodectidae.[2] Martill (2011) considered it potentially related to his new taxon Unwindia,[3] and Witton (2013) assigned it to the family Ornithocheiridae.[4]

A reappraisal of the holotype specimen and phylogenetic analysis by Jiang et al. (2020)[1] recovered Yixianopterus as a basal member of the clade Istiodactyliformes:

Lanceodontia	Istiodactyliformes   Haopterus     Linlongopterus     Mimodactylus     Yixianopterus       Hongshanopterus   Istiodactylidae   Nurhachius       Liaoxipterus     Istiodactylus               Ikrandraco       Lonchodraco       Ornithocheirus       Cimoliopterus     Anhangueria

References

1. Jiang, Shun-Xing; Zhang, Xin-Jun; Cheng, Xin; Wang, Xiao-Lin (2020). "A new pteranodontoid pterosaur forelimb from the upper Yixian Formation, with a revision of Yixianopterus jingangshanensis". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. doi:10.19615/j.cnki.1000-3118.201124.
2. J. Lü, S. Ji, C. Yuan, Y. Gao, Z. Sun and Q. Ji. 2006. New pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Western Liaoning. Papers from the 2005 Heyuan International Dinosaur Symposium. Geological Publishing House, Beijing 195-203
3. Martill, David M. (2011). "A new pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Santana Formation (Cretaceous) of Brazil". Cretaceous Research. 32 (2): 236–243. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2010.12.008.
4. Witton, Mark P. (2013). Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.