Cargando…

A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco

Tapejarids are edentulous pterosaurs particularly abundant in the Chinese Jiufotang Formation, counting with over 10 described specimens and dozens of undescribed ones. A total of seven nominal tapejarid species (within two genera) have been proposed, though it is disputed how many of those are vali...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pêgas, Rodrigo V., Zhou, Xuanyu, Jin, Xingsheng, Wang, Kai, Ma, Waisum
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9922500/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36788812
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14829
_version_ 1784887548337717248
author Pêgas, Rodrigo V.
Zhou, Xuanyu
Jin, Xingsheng
Wang, Kai
Ma, Waisum
author_facet Pêgas, Rodrigo V.
Zhou, Xuanyu
Jin, Xingsheng
Wang, Kai
Ma, Waisum
author_sort Pêgas, Rodrigo V.
collection PubMed
description Tapejarids are edentulous pterosaurs particularly abundant in the Chinese Jiufotang Formation, counting with over 10 described specimens and dozens of undescribed ones. A total of seven nominal tapejarid species (within two genera) have been proposed, though it is disputed how many of those are valid instead of sexual or ontogenetic morphs of fewer, or a single, species. However, detailed revisions of the matter are still lacking. In the present work, we provide a specimen-level survey of anatomical variation in previously described Jiufotang tapejarid specimens, as well as of six new ones. We present qualitative and morphometric comparisons, aiming to provide a basis for a taxonomic reappraisal of the complex. Our results lead us to interpret two Jiufotang tapejarid species as valid: Sinopterus dongi and Huaxiadraco corollatus (gen. et comb. nov.). Our primary taxonomic decisions did not rely around cranial crest features, which have typically been regarded as diagnostic for most of these proposed species albeit ever-growing evidence that these structures are highly variable in pterosaurs, due to ontogeny and sexual dimorphism. However, a reassessment of premaxillary crest variation in the Sinopterus complex reveals that while much of the observed variation (crest presence and size) can easily be attributed to intraspecific (ontogenetic and sexual) variation, some of it (crest shape) does seem to represent interspecific variation indeed. A phylogenetic analysis including the species regarded as valid was also performed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9922500
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-99225002023-02-13 A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco Pêgas, Rodrigo V. Zhou, Xuanyu Jin, Xingsheng Wang, Kai Ma, Waisum PeerJ Evolutionary Studies Tapejarids are edentulous pterosaurs particularly abundant in the Chinese Jiufotang Formation, counting with over 10 described specimens and dozens of undescribed ones. A total of seven nominal tapejarid species (within two genera) have been proposed, though it is disputed how many of those are valid instead of sexual or ontogenetic morphs of fewer, or a single, species. However, detailed revisions of the matter are still lacking. In the present work, we provide a specimen-level survey of anatomical variation in previously described Jiufotang tapejarid specimens, as well as of six new ones. We present qualitative and morphometric comparisons, aiming to provide a basis for a taxonomic reappraisal of the complex. Our results lead us to interpret two Jiufotang tapejarid species as valid: Sinopterus dongi and Huaxiadraco corollatus (gen. et comb. nov.). Our primary taxonomic decisions did not rely around cranial crest features, which have typically been regarded as diagnostic for most of these proposed species albeit ever-growing evidence that these structures are highly variable in pterosaurs, due to ontogeny and sexual dimorphism. However, a reassessment of premaxillary crest variation in the Sinopterus complex reveals that while much of the observed variation (crest presence and size) can easily be attributed to intraspecific (ontogenetic and sexual) variation, some of it (crest shape) does seem to represent interspecific variation indeed. A phylogenetic analysis including the species regarded as valid was also performed. PeerJ Inc. 2023-02-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9922500/ /pubmed/36788812 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14829 Text en © 2023 Pêgas et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Evolutionary Studies
Pêgas, Rodrigo V.
Zhou, Xuanyu
Jin, Xingsheng
Wang, Kai
Ma, Waisum
A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco
title A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco
title_full A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco
title_fullStr A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco
title_full_unstemmed A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco
title_short A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco
title_sort taxonomic revision of the sinopterus complex (pterosauria, tapejaridae) from the early cretaceous jehol biota, with the new genus huaxiadraco
topic Evolutionary Studies
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9922500/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36788812
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14829
work_keys_str_mv AT pegasrodrigov ataxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT zhouxuanyu ataxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT jinxingsheng ataxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT wangkai ataxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT mawaisum ataxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT pegasrodrigov taxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT zhouxuanyu taxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT jinxingsheng taxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT wangkai taxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco
AT mawaisum taxonomicrevisionofthesinopteruscomplexpterosauriatapejaridaefromtheearlycretaceousjeholbiotawiththenewgenushuaxiadraco