Infraorder
Valid Extinct

Eupterodactyloidea

Bennett 1994

Pterodactyloidea is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs, and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles. They appeared during the middle Jurassic Period, and differ from the basal rhamphorhynchoids by their short tails and long wing metacarpals. The most advanced forms also lack teeth, and by the late Cretaceous, all known pterodactyloids were toothless. Many species had well-developed crests on the skull, a form of display taken to extremes in giant-crested forms like Nyctosaurus and Tupandactylus. Pterodactyloids were the last surviving pterosaurs when the order became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, together with the non-avian dinosaurs and most marine reptiles.

Temporal range
PBDB occurrences
0
Group
Ptérosaures
Piscivore Volant Marine
Eupterodactyloidea
click to enlarge
Several members of Pterodactyloidea (top to bottom): Pteranodon, Pterodaustro, the skulls of several pterosaurs (Guidraco, Anhanguera, Tupandactylus, and an unnamed dsungaripterid), Quetzalcoatlus, Aerodactylus, and Coloborhynchus © régine debatty Public domain (uploaded by User:Gadfium) Helder da Rocha User:Ghedoghedo User:Ghedoghedo Henk Caspers/Naturalis · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Pterosauria Order
Pterodactyloidea Suborder
Eupterodactyloidea Infraorder
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
S. C. Bennett. 1994. Taxonomy and systematics of the Late Cretaceous pterosaur Pteranodon (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea). Occasional Papers of the Natural History Museum of the University of Kansas 169:1-70