Fenghuangopterus is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of basal pterosaur

Pterosaur

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...

 that lived in northeastern China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 during the Middle Jurassic

Middle Jurassic

The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from 176-161 million years ago. In European lithostratigraphy, rocks of this Middle Jurassic age are called the Dogger....

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The type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 Fenghuangopterus lii was in 2010 described and named by Lü Junchang e.a. The generic name is derived from the Fenghuang Mountain and a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

ised Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 pteron, "wing". The specific name honours Li Xiumei, who donated the fossil. It is known from a single relatively complete, though badly crushed, fossil skeleton, holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 CYGB-0037, recovered from the Tiaojishan Formation

Tiaojishan Formation

The Tiaojishan Formation is a geological formation in Hebei and Liaoning, People's Republic of China, dating to the middle-late Jurassic period . It is known for its fossil plants, and is made up mainly of pyroclastic rock interspersed with basic volcanic and sedimentary rocks...

 of Liaoning Province, about 160 million years old. It is a member of the rhamphorhynchid

Rhamphorhynchidae

Rhamphorhynchidae is a group of early "rhamphorhynchoid" pterosaurs named after Rhamphorhynchus, that lived in the Late Jurassic. The family Rhamphorhynchidae was named in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley.-Classification:...

 subfamily Scaphognathinae, which had previously been known only from the Late Jurassic and includes the close relatives Scaphognathus

Scaphognathus

Scaphognathus was a pterosaur that lived around Germany during the Late Jurassic. It had a wingspan of about one meter.-Naming:The first known Scaphognathus specimen was described in 1831 by August Goldfuss who mistook the tailless specimen for a new Pterodactylus species: P. crassirostris. The...

, Sordes

Sordes

Sordes was a small basal pterosaur from the Late Jurassic Karabastau Svita of Kazakhstan.The genus was named in 1971 by Aleksandr Grigorevich Sharov. The type species is Sordes pilosus. The genus name means "filth" or "scum" in Latin, a reference to evil spirits in local folklore...

and Harpactognathus

Harpactognathus

Harpactognathus was a genus of pterosaur found in the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation of Albany County, Wyoming, USA. It is based on NAMAL 101, a partial skull consisting of the snout, recovered from near Bone Cabin Quarry in 1996...

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Description

Fenghuangopterus was similar to other scaphognathines in its short, blunt skull with a large antorbital fenestra, and widely-spaced, vertically-oriented teeth (as opposed to the horizontally-oriented teeth of other rhamphorhynchids). Like all known rhamphorhynchids its tail was stiffened by long vertebral extensions. The primary differences between Fenghuangopterus and other scaphognathines reside in its more numerous teeth — eleven in the upper jaw — which extended further back in the jaw than with its relatives, and its earlier time period.