Feilongus

Taxobox
name = "Feilongus"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
ordo = Pterosauria
subordo = Pterodactyloidea
superfamilia = Ctenochasmatoidea or Ornithocheiroidea
familia = uncertain
genus = "Feilongus"
binomial = "Feilongus youngi"
binomial_authority = Wang, Kellner, Zhou, and Campos, 2005

"Feilongus" (meaning "flying dragon") is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatoid or ornithocheiroid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Barremian-Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Beipiao, Liaoning, China. It is based on IVPP V-12539, a skull and mandible. It is notable for having two bony crests on the skull (one long and low on the beak, and one off of the rear of the skull), and for the upper jaw being 10% longer than the lower jaw, giving it a pronounced overbite. The second crest was short and rounded, and may have had a nonbony extension, now lost. The skull of the only known individual is 390-400 millimeters long (15.4-15.7 inches), and its wingspan is estimated to have been around 2.4 meters (7.9 feet), making it large for a basal pterodactyloid. The skull and lower jaws held 76 long, curved needle-like teeth, confined to the beak ends of the jaws.cite journal |last=Wang |first= Xiaolin |coauthors=Kellner, Alexander W.K.; Zhonghe Zhou; and de Almeida Campos, Diogenes |year=2005 |month=October |title=Pterosaur diversity and faunal turnover in Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems in China |journal=Nature |volume=437 |pages=875–879 |doi=10.1038/nature03982 ]

Its describers considered it to be most similar to "Gallodactylus" (="Cycnorhamphus"), and so placed it in the Gallodactylidae, a now-defunct family of ctenochasmatoids. This group of pterosaurs is known for having numerous small, thin teeth, possibly for straining food from water, as flamingos do today.cite book |last=Unwin |first=David M. |authorlink=David M. Unwin |title=The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time |year=2006 |publisher=Pi Press |location=New York |isbn=0-13-146308-X |chapter=A tree for pterosaurs |pages=82-84 ] However, later work suggests that this genus was closer to the ornithocheiroids,cite journal |last=Lü |first=Junchang |coauthors=and Qiang Ji |year=2006 |title=Preliminary results of a phylogenetic analysis of the pterosaurs from western Liaoning and surrounding area |journal=Journal of the Paleontological Society of Korea |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=239–261 |url=http://cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/Lu&Ji_ptero_phylogeny.pdf |accessdate=2007-03-10 ] a group more adapted to soaring.cite book |last=Unwin |first=David M. |authorlink=David M. Unwin |title=The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time |year=2006 |publisher=Pi Press |location=New York |isbn= 0-13-146308-X |chapter=A tree for pterosaurs |pages=79-82 ] A new report following this line of thought has put it and "Boreopterus" into a new ornithocheiroid family, the Boreopteridae.cite book |last=Lü |first=J. |coauthors=Ji, S.; Yuan, C.; and Ji, Q. |year=2006 |title=Pterosaurs from China |publisher=Geological Publishing House |location=Beijing |pages= 147 p. |language=Chinese ]

References

External links

* [http://www.pterosaur.co.uk/species/LCP/Gallo/Feilongus01.htm "Feilongus"] in The Pterosaur Database
* [http://archosauria.org/pterosauria/taxonomy/genera/feilongus.html "Feilongus"] in The Pterosauria