Mimodactylidae

Mimodactylids Temporal range: Early-Late Cretaceous, 125–95 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Holotype fossil of Mimodactylus libanensis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Pterosauria
Suborder:	†Pterodactyloidea
Clade:	†Lanceodontia
Clade:	†Istiodactyliformes
Clade:	†Mimodactylidae Kellner, Caldwell, Holgado, Dalla Vecchia, Nohra, Sayão, and Currie, 2019
Genera
†Haopterus †Linlongopterus? †Mimodactylus

Mimodactylidae is a group or family of pterosaurs known from Cretaceous deposits in East Asia and the Middle East. They are phylogenetically more closely related to the Istiodactylidae than to the Ornithocheiridae or the Anhangueridae, forming the clade Istiodactyliformes together with the Istiodactylidae and Hongshanopterus.^[1]

In 2019, Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner, Michael Wayne Caldwell, Borja Holgado, Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia, Roy Nohra, Juliana Manso Sayão and Philip John Currie defined the clade Mimodactylidae as the group consisting of Mimodactylus libanensis and all species more closely related to Mimodactylus than to Istiodactylus latidens, Ikrandraco avatar or Anhanguera blittersdorffi.^[1] The same year, just two species were known: Mimodactylus from the Cenomanian of Lebanon and its sister taxon Haopterus from the Aptian of China.^[1]

Classification

The cladogram below is from the topology recovered by Kellner et al. (2019).^[1]

Istiodactyliformes	Mimodactylidae Haopterus Mimodactylus Hongshanopterus Istiodactylidae Nurhachius Istiodactylinae Liaoxipterus Istiodactylus sinensis Istiodactylus latidens

References

1. Kellner, Alexander W. A.; Caldwell, Michael W.; Holgado, Borja; Vecchia, Fabio M. Dalla; Nohra, Roy; Sayão, Juliana M.; Currie, Philip J. (2019). "First complete pterosaur from the Afro-Arabian continent: insight into pterodactyloid diversity". Scientific Reports. 9(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-019-54042-z.