page_title: Ornithocheiridae
section_title: Skull
hierarchical_section_title: Ornithocheiridae / Description / Skull
caption_attribution_description: Skull characters of species from different lineages within Anhangueria. Each skull is based on theholotypes and paratypes (dark grey), and elements from other specimens (light grey) re-marked with brokenlines. Hamipterus tianshanensis (IVPP V 18935.1), in righ lateral view (A) and palatal view (B) Ludodactylussibbicki (specimen stored at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany (SMNK),SMNK PAL 3828), in right lateral view (C) Caulkicephalus trimicrodon (specimen stored at the Isle of WightCounty Museum Service, Sandown, Isle of Wight, England, United Kingdom (IWCMS), IWCMS 2002.189),in palatal view (D) Tropeognathus mesembrinus (specimen stored at the Bayerische Staatssammlung fürPaläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Germany (BSP), BSP 1987 I 46), in right lateral view (E), and palatal view(F); Anhanguera blittersdorffi (MN 4805-V), in right lateral view (G), and palatal view (H) and Uktenadactyluswadleighi (specimen stored at the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, United States (SMU), SMU73058), in right lateral view (I), and palatal view (J). Arrows show the character states in each skull. Scale bar5 cm. See the Supplementary Information for details about number and state of characters.
context_page_description: Ornithocheiridae is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. These pterosaurs were among the last to possess teeth. Members that belong to this group lived from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods, around 140 to 96 million years ago.
  Ornithocheirids are generally infamous for having an enormously controversial and very confusing taxonomy. Although agreements that these animals were related, and therefore similar to istiodactylids and pteranodontians, there is still no virtual consensus over the exact content and interrelationships of this group. Ornithocheirids were the most successful pterosaurs during their reign, they were also the largest pterosaurs before the appearance of the azhdarchids such as Quetzalcoatlus. Ornithocheirids were excellent fish hunters, they used various flight techniques to catch their prey, and they are also capable of flying great distances without flapping constantly. The later existence of the crested pteranodontids made paleontologists think that ornithocheirids were their potential ancestors.
context_section_description: Ornithocheirids had elongated jaws with rounded sagittal crests on both tips, as well as robust fang-like teeth. The sagittal crest of the species Ornithocheirus simus and Tropeognathus mesembrinus extended to the anterior end of the rostrum, a feature that is also seen in Siroccopteryx moroccensis; further synapomorphies between these three species were also found, including the premaxilla having a tall and narrow shape in anterior aspect, the anterolateral margins of the premaxilla being convex in both anterior and lateral view, a feature that resulted in a bluntly rounded outline of the tip of the rostrum. The rostrum in S. moroccensis lacks a constriction that is posterior to the anterior rosette, a feature also shared by O. simus and T. mesembrinus, therefore another synapomorphy supported by these three species. Yet another feature shared by these three species is that the teeth are short, straight, and relatively uniform in size, something that is not present in other ornithocheirans such as Coloborhynchus and Anhanguera. In Coloborhynchus, the teeth were found to have been heterodont, elongated, recurved and caniniform, which is similar to those seen in another ornithocheirid called Caulkicephalus. The genus Caulkicephalus, though having similarities with other ornithocheirids, including the anterior end of the rostrum being transversely expanded, or having a low, bony sagittal crest that includes a smooth dorsal margin on the rostrum, still possesses some unique features. The most distinct characteristic of Caulkicephalus is that it bores a frontoparietal crest, a feature that is only seen in pteranodontians such as Pteranodon, and in Ludodactylus, a pterosaur once assigned to the Ornithocheiridae, but many recent analysis however, have placed it within the more inclusive group Anhangueria, outside the Ornithocheiridae.
caption: Skull comparisons between different anhanguerians, notice the ornithocheirids Caulkicephalus (D), Tropeognathus (E and F) and Uktenadactylus (I and J)
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