#chaoyangopterus

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Chaoyangopterus zhangi

By Joschua Knüppe, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.

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Name: Chaoyangopterus zhangi

Name Meaning: Chaoyang Wing

First Described: 2003

Described By: Wang & Zhou

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Pterodactyliformes, Caelidracones, Pterodactyloidea, Eupterodactyloidea, Ornithocheiroidea, Azhdarchoidea, Neoazhdarchia, Neopterodactyloidea, Chaoyangopteridae 

Chaoyangopterus is our first Chaoyangopterid - the group of pterosaurs most closely related to the famed Azhdarchids. Chaoyangopterus and others of its group actually did similar things - they were probably land predators that flew around to locate food, though Chaoyangopterids were probably more specialized - there were quite a few of them in one location, where as Azhdarchid had one genus per region - meaning that the Azhdarchids probably all did the same thing and Chaoyangopterids each did different things in their environment (except for the notable exceptions outside of this range). Chaoyangopterus was one of the clustered ones, living about 120 million years ago in the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous in the Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, China - making it the titular pterosaur of the region. It is known from a good portion of the skeleton. It had a wingspan of nearly 2 meters long, making it a rather smallish to medium sized pterosaur, it had a massive head, short wings, and small torso, like others in its general group, and probably had a crest on its head like others in its group for display. It also had no teeth, so it would have grabbed (smallish) prey and picked it up with its beak. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaoyangopteridae

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaoyangopterus 

http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/chaoyangopterus.html

[palaeopedia]

The Chaoyang wing, Chaoyangopterus (2003)

Phylum : Chordata Class : Reptilia Order : Pterosauria Family : Chaoyangopteridae Genus : Chaoyangopterus Species : C. zhangi

Early Cretaceous (120 Ma)

1,85 m wingspan (size)

Jiufotang formation, China (map)

Determining the phylogenetic position of Chaoyangopterus was problematic to the extent that the Chaoyangopteridae has now been created within the Azhdarchoidea to accommodate it and other similar pterosaurs. Chaoyangopterus is toothless and is thought to have been a piscivore.