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The term sister group is used in phylogenetic analysis, however, only groups identified in the analysis are labeled as "sister groups".. An example is birds, whose commonly cited living sister group is the crocodiles, but that is true only when discussing extant organisms; [3] [4] when other, extinct groups are considered, the relationship between birds and crocodiles appears distant.
However, in 2010, Brian Andres re-defined the group as a stem-based taxon in his dissertation, [10] and then formalized the definition in 2014 as all pterosaurs more closely related to Pteranodon longiceps than to Pterodactylus antiquus. [3] The slightly more exclusive group Ornithocheiroidea was re-defined in
In 2010, Brian Blake Andres wrote a review of pterosaur phylogeny in his dissertation.His phylogenetic analysis combined data mainly from three different matrixes: Kellner's original analysis (2003) and its updates (Kellner (2004), Wang et al. (2005) and Wang et al. (2009)), Unwin's original analysis (2003) and its updates (Unwin (2002), Unwin (2004), Lu et al. (2008) and Lu et al. (2009)) and ...
Pterodactylus is known from over 30 fossil specimens, and though most belong to juveniles, many preserve complete skeletons. [17] [23] Pterodactylus antiquus was a relatively small pterosaur, with an estimated adult wingspan of about 1.04 meters (3 ft 5 in), based on the only known adult specimen, which is represented by an isolated skull. [17]
They concluded that, although more basal pterosauromorphs are needed to clarify their relationships, current evidence indicates that pterosaurs are avemetatarsalians, as either the sister group of Scleromochlus or a branch between the latter and Lagosuchus. [132] Life restoration of Lagerpeton.
The clade Monofenestrata was in 2010 defined as the group consisting of Pterodactylus and all species sharing with Pterodactylus the synapomorphy of an external nostril confluent with the antorbital fenestra, the major skull opening on the side of the snout.
The clade Caelidracones was defined in 2003 by David Unwin as the group consisting of the last common ancestor of Anurognathus ammoni and Quetzalcoatlus northropi, and all its descendants. [ 3 ] The name Caelidracones means "sky dragons" from Latin caelum , "heaven", and draco , "dragon" and is a reference to Harry Govier Seeley 's 1901 book ...
In 2018 however, Nicholas Longrich and colleagues found Boreopteridae outside Anhangueria as the sister taxon of the family Lonchodectidae, both groups placed as basal members of the Ornithocheiromorpha. [49] Within Lanceodontia, there is a more restrictive clade called Ornithocheirae, which has a more convoluted taxonomic history.