Skip to content
Anhangueridae
EntityQ2545586· pop 14· linked from 339 articles

Anhangueridae

Sign in to save

Also known as Anhanguerid, Anhanguerids

Anhangueridae (alternatively called Ornithocheiridae, meaning "bird hands") 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 (Valanginian to Turonian stages), around 140 to 90 million years ago.

Wikidata facts

Subclass of
pterosaur
Image
Anhanguera skeleton white background.JPG
Show 5 more facts
taxon name
Anhangueridae
taxon rank
family
Commons category
Anhangueridae
start time
120000000-
end time
94000000-0
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~24 min read

Encyclopedic overview

16 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Naming
  • Description
  • Skull
  • Postcranial skeleton
  • Classification
  • Formerly assigned genera
  • Phylogeny
  • Paleobiology
  • Diet and feeding
  • Locomotion and flight
  • Paleoecology
  • See also
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Anhangueridae (alternatively called Ornithocheiridae, meaning "bird hands") 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 (Valanginian to Turonian stages), around 140 to 90 million years ago.

Anhanguerids 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. Anhanguerids were the most successful pterosaurs during their reign, and were also the largest pterosaurs before the appearance of the azhdarchids such as Quetzalcoatlus. Anhanguerids were excellent fish hunters, using various flight techniques to catch their prey, and were also capable of flying great distances without flapping constantly.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Anhangueridae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (7)