Pterodactyloidea forms one of the two suborders of 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...

s ("wing lizards"), and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles. They appeared during the middle Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 Period, and differ from the basal rhamphorhynchoidea

Rhamphorhynchoidea

The Rhamphorhynchoidea forms one of the two suborders of pterosaurs and represent an evolutionary grade of primitive members of this group of flying reptiles. This suborder is paraphyletic in relation to the Pterodactyloidea, which arose from within the Rhamphorhynchoidea, not from a more distant...

 by their short tails and long wing metacarpals (hand bones). The most advanced forms also lack teeth. Many species had well developed crests on the skull, a form of display taken to extremes in giant-crested forms like Nyctosaurus

Nyctosaurus

Nyctosaurus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur, the remains of which have been found in the Niobrara Formation of the mid-western United States, which, during the late Cretaceous Period, was covered in an extensive shallow sea. The genus Nyctosaurus has had numerous species referred to it,...

and Tupandactylus

Tupandactylus

Tupandactylus is a genus of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. It is notable for its large cranial crest, composed partly of bone and partly of soft tissue...

. Pterodactyloids (specifically the family Azhdarchidae

Azhdarchidae

Azhdarchidae is a family of pterosaurs known primarily from the late Cretaceous Period, though an isolated vertebrae apparently from an azhdarchid is known from the early Cretaceous as well...

) were the last surviving pterosaurs when the order became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 Period, together with the non-avian dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s and most marine reptiles.

"Pterodactyl

Pterodactyl (disambiguation)

Pterodactyl can mean:*Pterodactylus, a genus of pterosaur.*Members of the family Pterodactylidae*Members of the suborder Pterodactyloidea* Pterosaurs, an order of extinct flying reptiles...

" is also a common term for pterodactyloid pterosaurs, though it can also be used to refer to Pterodactylus

Pterodactylus

Pterodactylus is a genus of pterosaurs, whose members are popularly known as pterodactyls. It was the first to be named and identified as a flying reptile...

specifically or (incorrectly) to pterosaurs in general. Well-known examples of pterodactyloids include Pterodactylus, Dsungaripterus

Dsungaripterus

Dsungaripterus was a genus of pterosaur, with an average wingspan of . It lived during the Early Cretaceous, in China, where the first fossil was found in the Junggar Basin.-Discovery and species:...

, Pteranodon

Pteranodon

Pteranodon , from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota, was one of the largest pterosaur genera and had a maximum wingspan of over...

, and Quetzalcoatlus

Quetzalcoatlus

Quetzalcoatlus was a pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous of North America , and one of the largest known flying animals of all time. It was a member of the Azhdarchidae, a family of advanced toothless pterosaurs with unusually long, stiffened necks...

.

Taxonomy

Listing of families and superfamilies within the suborder Pterodactyloidea, after Unwin 2006.

• Order Pterosauria
  • Suborder Pterodactyloidea
    • Nemicolopterus
      Nemicolopterus
      Nemicolopterus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur, described in 2008. The type and only known species is N. crypticus. It lived in the Jehol Biota 120 million years ago. Its wingspan of slightly under 25 centimeters makes it smaller than any but a few specimens of hatchling...
      
      
    • Superfamily Azhdarchoidea
      Azhdarchoidea
      Azhdarchoidea is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea.-Classification:Listing of families and genera after Unwin 2006 except where specified.* Superfamily Azhdarchoidea** Genus "Aurorazhdarcho"** Family Chaoyangopteridae...
      
      
    • Superfamily Ctenochasmatoidea
      Ctenochasmatoidea
      Ctenochasmatoidea is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea.-Classification:Cladogram after Unwin ....
      
      
    • Superfamily Dsungaripteroidea
      Dsungaripteroidea
      Dsungaripteroidea is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea.-Classification:Listing of families and genera after Unwin 2006 unless otherwise noted.* Superfamily Dsungaripteroidea** Herbstosaurus** Kepodactylus...
      
      
    • Superfamily Ornithocheiroidea
      Ornithocheiroidea
      Ornithocheiroidea is an extinct group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea.-Locomotion:Ornithocheiroids, like other pterosaurs, are considered to have been skilled fliers as well as adept at moving on the ground...
      
      

• Pterodactyloids of uncertain relationships (incertae sedis
  Incertae sedis
  , is a term used to define a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Uncertainty at specific taxonomic levels is attributed by , , and similar terms.-Examples:*The fossil plant Paradinandra suecica could not be assigned to any...
  
  )
  • Araripesaurus
    Araripesaurus
    Araripesaurus was a pterosaur, belonging to the Pterodactyloidea, from the famous Santana Formation of Brazil, dating from the Lower Cretaceous....
    
    
  • Mesadactylus
    Mesadactylus
    Mesadactylus is an extinct genus of pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, USA....
    
    
  • Mythunga
    Mythunga
    Mythunga is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the late Early Cretaceous of Australia. It is known from a partial skull found in marine rocks of the Albian-age Toolebuc Formation near Hughenden, Queensland. Only the snout and part of the jaws are known...
    
    
  • Puntanipterus
    Puntanipterus
    Puntanipterus was a genus of ?dsungaripterid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous La Cruz Formation of San Luis, Argentina....
    
    
  • Santanadactylus
    Santanadactylus
    Santanadactylus was a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Aptian-age Romualdo Member of the Lower Cretaceous Santana Formation, of Barra do Jardim, Araripe Plateau, Ceará Province, Brazil. Four species have been named, but today it is doubted they are part of the same genus...
    
    

Phylogeny

Cladogram

Cladogram

A cladogram is a diagram used in cladistics which shows ancestral relations between organisms, to represent the evolutionary tree of life. Although traditionally such cladograms were generated largely on the basis of morphological characters, DNA and RNA sequencing data and computational...

 after Unwin (2003). For alternate cladograms, see List of pterosaur classifications.
Uncertain placement (incertae sedis): Araripedactylus

Araripedactylus

Araripedactylus was a large genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur, known from a single wing bone found in the Early Cretaceous-age Santana Formation of Brazil....

, Wyomingopteryx

Wyomingopteryx

"Wyomingopteryx" is an informal name for a genus of pterosaur. It has never been described, and has only been mentioned in a description of a painting of Morrison Formation animals by Pat Redman, in a 1994 publication by Robert Bakker...

, Bennettazhia

Bennettazhia

Bennettazhia is a genus of pterosaur .In 1928 Charles Gilmore named a new species of Pteranodon: P. oregonensis. A humerus , two fused dorsal vertebrae and the broken-off end of some joint bone had been unearthed from the Lower Cretaceous beds of the Hudspeth Formation in Wheeler County, in the...

, Dermodactylus

Dermodactylus

Dermodactylus was a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, USA...

, Haopterus

Haopterus

Haopterus was a genus of ornithocheirid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Barremian-Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China....

, Mesadactylus

Mesadactylus

Mesadactylus is an extinct genus of pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, USA....

, Criorhynchus.