page_title: Aurorazhdarcho
section_title: Phylogeny
hierarchical_section_title: Aurorazhdarcho / Phylogeny
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Fossil of Pterodactylus - Took the picture at Natural History Museum, Bonn University
context_page_description: Aurorazhdarcho is an extinct genus of gallodactylid ctenochasmatoid pterosaur known from the Late Jurassic period of what is now Bavaria, southern Germany.
context_section_description: Aurorazhdarcho was by the describers assigned to the Azhdarchoidea and placed in a new family, the Protazhdarchidae, of which it is the only named member. It would then be the oldest known azhdarchoid with the dubious exception of the "Doratorhynchus" material.
  The describers rejected the use of a cladistic analysis to establish the phylogeny. Using the comparative method they found that Aurorazhdarcho was closest in proportions to the ctenochasmatid Ctenochasma elegans, a species also known from the Solnhofen, but they concluded that Aurorazhdarcho belonged to the Azhdarchoidea because it shared certain evolutionary key adaptations with that group, the most decisive of which they considered to be the low shoulder joint. The position of the shoulder joint with Ctenochasma could not be established but the describers assumed it was higher because of the closer relation of that taxon with Pterodactylus.
  Bennett in 2013, based on the analysis of all known specimens of Aurorazhdarcho micronyx and taking its short neck and pedal morphology into account, considered this species to be a ctenochasmatid.
  Below is a cladogram following Vidovic and Martill, 2017, highlighting the positions of several possible gallodactylids, including Aurorazhdarcho:
caption: Specimen in Bonn
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