Abstract
Diagnostic characters from 227 pterosaur species were listed, separated into cranial or post-cranial elements and counted. From 21 post-cranial and 23 cranial elements, most diagnostic characters were related to phalanges (15%) and rostrum. Post-cranial characters comprise 44.23%, and cranial characters 55.77% of all characters used in pterosaur diagnoses. The highest correlation between diagnostic features occurs between the coracoid and the scapula. 25.11% and 28.63% of sampled taxa were diagnosed with 3-4 and 5-6 characters, respectively. The mean number of 6.79 characters was found in specimens with both cranial and post-cranial elements, and 4.86 and 4.17 in those with just cranial or post-cranial elements, respectively. 31 from 227 species (13.7%) were erected based on single elements, which are most frequently complete or partial mandibles (n=18). We estimate that 23.4% of the total pterosaur genera are currently known, with 90% of this diversity to be unveiled up to 2145. As the requirements of broad and cautious revision of genus/group must be undertaken, and some deposits will provide mostly fragmented and incomplete material, the assignment of fairly incomplete specimens to the most inclusive taxonomic level is feasible. Tracing this scenario can guide future works on the description of new pterosaur taxa.
Highlights
Delineating species and their taxonomy has been traditionally a matter of recognizing morphological characters (Schwentner et al 2011) as structural attributes of organisms that are primarily recognized as different from any other
Despite data defining morphology-based species have been currently complemented by other data source such as DNA sequence data, which has fomented plenty of debate on the sufficiency of morphological data alone to define species (e.g., Ebach & Carvalho 2005a, b, Packer et al 2009), this cannot be applied to some areas that usually can count solely on structure (Morphology), such as the case of Paleontology
From 21 post-cranial elements, most diagnostic characters were related to phalanges (15%), followed by humeri (13%) and vertebrae (12.25%)
Summary
Delineating species and their taxonomy has been traditionally a matter of recognizing morphological characters (Schwentner et al 2011) as structural attributes of organisms that are primarily recognized as different from any other. Morphology has been the primary or sole source of data for delimiting species (Cook et al 2010). Despite data defining morphology-based species have been currently complemented by other data source such as DNA sequence data, which has fomented plenty of debate on the sufficiency of morphological data alone to define species (e.g., Ebach & Carvalho 2005a, b, Packer et al 2009), this cannot be applied to some areas that usually can count solely on structure (Morphology), such as the case of Paleontology. Recognition of paleontological species relies almost exclusively on their morphological differences, which is hampered by the often fragmentary and isolated nature of fossils (Forey et al 2004).
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