page_title: Ornithocheiridae
section_title: Postcranial skeleton
hierarchical_section_title: Ornithocheiridae / Description / Postcranial skeleton
caption_attribution_description: English: Ornithocheirus mesembrinus (syn. Tropeognathus), a pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Brasilia (Santana Formation) Deutsch: Ornithocheirus mesembrinus (syn. Tropeognathus), ein Kurzschwanzflugsaurier aus der Unterkreide von Brasilien (Santana-Formation)
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: The forelimbs of ornithocheirids were proportionally enormous, around five times longer than their legs. Substantial anchorage on the body is required given the mighty arms, and accordingly, ornithocheirids have robust scapulocoracoids, and stout, deeply keeled sterna, which served the purpose of housing their substantial forelimb muscles. The shoulder or pectoral girdle in ornithocheirids is set at a perpendicular angle to the spine, with the coracoids being much longer than the scapulae. The shoulder girdle is also of typical construction for ornithocheiroids. Over 60 percent of the wing length is occupied by the wing fingers, making them among the longest possessed by any pterodactyloids.
  In adult ornithocheirids, the sacrum develops a supraneural plate above its neural spines. The tails of ornithocheirids are poorly known, though they appear to be composed of at least eleven short vertebrae, and become relatively circular in cross section toward the end of the series. Like the related istiodactylids, the slender femora of ornithocheirids have femoral heads that project almost in line with the femoral shaft, but seem to lack prominent processes that anchor their hindlimb muscles. Ornithocheirid shinbones (or tibiae) are similarly developed and of equal length to the femora. Although the feet in ornithocheirids are poorly known, they seem to be relatively small and gracile, with undeveloped claws and a hooklike fifth metatarsal.
caption: Restoration of three Tropeognathus in flight, notice their high aspect ratio
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