page_title: Ornithocheirae
section_title: Classification
hierarchical_section_title: Ornithocheirae / Classification
caption_attribution_description: Comparison between Ornithocheirus simus and Tropeognathus mesembrinus. A and C Ornithocheirus simus, holotype CAMSM B54428 (Albian, Cambridge Greensand), anterior part of the rostrum A anterior view C ventral view B and D Tropeognathus mesembrinus, holotype BSP 1987 I 46 (Aptian / Albian, Romualdo Formation), anterior part of the rostrum B anterior view D ventral view. Arrows and numbers mark the position of the first pair of alveoli. Scale bar = 10 mm.
context_page_description: Ornithocheirae is an extinct clade of pteranodontoid pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous to the Late Cretaceous of Asia, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by Harry Seeley in 1870 as a family that contains Ornithocheirus and its relatives. The name was emended to Ornithocheiridae, to match the requirements of the ICZN Code that a family-ranked clade should end with an -idae suffix. Brian Andres in his review of pterosaur phylogeny, defined the name Ornithocheirae phylogenetically, as a node-based taxon consisting of the last common ancestor of Anhanguera and Ornithocheirus and all its descendants. Thus Ornithocheirae is defined to include two families, the Anhangueridae and the Ornithocheiridae, following the opinion of Alexander Kellner and Andres that these families should not be synonymized based on their original phylogenetical definitions.
context_section_description: Below is a cladogram showing the phylogenetic placement of this group within the more inclusive group Pteranodontia from Andres and Myers (2013).
  The cladogram below is a topology recovered by Jacobs et al. (2019). Their analysis is similar to the one by Andres & Myers in 2013, though they placed more genera within the families Ornithocheiridae and Anhangueridae, including Camposipterus, Cimoliopterus, Maaradactylus and Siroccopteryx.
caption: Holotypes of Ornithocheirus (A and C) and Tropeognathus (B and D)
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