Pterosauria

Definitions of zoological clade names.

Pterosauria

Postby mattmart » Fri May 07, 2010 7:21 am

Has anyone discussed Pterosauria yet?

Unwin 2006 used a node-based definition anchored on Preondactylus, the most basal form in his phylogeny. But any node-based definition like this will end up looking extremely arbitrary as soon as the inevitably more primitive forms come to light. Branch-based would be just as bad, inevitably including everything down to (presumably) basal ornithodirans nowhere near a gliding, let alone flying, stage. Plus, we've already got Pterosauromorpha, which is a nice compliment to Dinosauromorpha if they're really sister groups. We're forced to either exclude a big chunk of 'classic' pterosaurs or include a big chunk of very un-pterosaurian taxa. There isn't even a pterosaurian Archaeopteryx with the historical clout to serve as a good arbitrary specifier. It would be like having to define Aves if there were no crown birds and the most primitive fossil bird known was Ichthyornis.

The only fair and arbitrary thing to do, off the top of my head, would be to pick the first two described taxa and use those as specifiers (Pterodactylus + Rhamphorhynchus). This would render Dimorphodon, Eudimorphodon, etc non-pterosaurs, but there are going to be some very Eudimorphodon-like non-pterosaurs either way. Alternately, use whichever pterosaurian taxa were originally included when Pterosauria was coined. Which would be Pterodactylus + Rhamphorhynchus + Dimorphodon (and maybe a few others initially included in Pterodactylus?).

The only way to retain the classic winged lizards sense is to use an apo-clade, but this might not be ideal for Pterosauria itself. We could always resurrect some oldies like Ornithosauria or even von Meyer's Pterodactyli (or is that name unavailable due to the supposed emendation to Pterodactylidae?).

How about "Pterodactyles"? :)
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Re: Pterosauria

Postby keesey » Wed May 12, 2010 5:55 pm

This is really an ideal situation for an apomorphy-based clade definition. Something like Clade("manual digit IV longer than humerus + ulna" @ Pterodactylus antiquus).
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Re: Pterosauria

Postby David Černý » Tue May 25, 2010 8:03 pm

keesey wrote:This is really an ideal situation for an apomorphy-based clade definition. Something like Clade("manual digit IV longer than humerus + ulna" @ Pterodactylus antiquus).


In fact, your proposal is almost identical with Padian's informal one from the First International Phylogenetic Nomenclature Meeting:

Padian (2004) wrote:Pterosauria (Pterosauromorpha with fourth metacarpal and digit hypertrophied to support wing membrane
synapomorphic with Pterodactylus antiquus)


Except for one unexplained expression ("hypertrophied"), his definition is fine. It hasn't been formally published but that's not much a problem for the PhyloCode.

Literature:

Padian, K. 2004. The nomenclature of Pterosauria (Reptilia, Archosauria). Pp. 27 in Laurin, M. (ed.), First International Phylogenetic Nomenclature Meeting, Paris, July 6-9, 2004 (abstract).
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Re: Pterosauria

Postby mattmart » Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:30 am

David Černý wrote:
keesey wrote:This is really an ideal situation for an apomorphy-based clade definition. Something like Clade("manual digit IV longer than humerus + ulna" @ Pterodactylus antiquus).


In fact, your proposal is almost identical with Padian's informal one from the First International Phylogenetic Nomenclature Meeting:

Padian (2004) wrote:Pterosauria (Pterosauromorpha with fourth metacarpal and digit hypertrophied to support wing membrane
synapomorphic with Pterodactylus antiquus)


Except for one unexplained expression ("hypertrophied"), his definition is fine. It hasn't been formally published but that's not much a problem for the PhyloCode.

Literature:

Padian, K. 2004. The nomenclature of Pterosauria (Reptilia, Archosauria). Pp. 27 in Laurin, M. (ed.), First International Phylogenetic Nomenclature Meeting, Paris, July 6-9, 2004 (abstract).


Good to know, glad the apo-clades are gaining traction in some obviously useful places after all :)

I'd reccomend combining Keesey's and Padian's definition, or at least finding some acceptable way to incorporate the presence of a wing membrane into the definition. I can imagine basal pterosauromorphs with long MC + digit 4 and short humerus + ulna but which had not yet developed a wing membrane.
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Re: Pterosauria

Postby keesey » Sun Jun 06, 2010 11:20 pm

The one problem with that is that wing membranes are preserved much more rarely than humeri, ulnae, and manual digits, so you are more likely to have specimens where application is questionable. On the other hand, it does reflect the etymology of the name better. Eh, I could go either way.
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