Pteranodontoidea (or pteranodontoids, from Greek meaning "toothless wings") is an extinct clade of ornithocheiroid pterosaurs from the Early to Late Cretaceous (early Valanginian to late Maastrichtian stages) of Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner in 1996. In 2003, Kellner defined the clade as a node-based taxon consisting of the last common ancestor of Anhanguera, Pteranodon and all its descendants. The clade Ornithocheiroidea is sometimes considered to be the senior synonym of Pteranodontoidea, however it depends on its definition. Brian Andres (2008, 2010, 2014) in his analyses, converts Ornithocheiroidea using the definition of Kellner (2003) to avoid this synonymy. Despite the meaning of the group's name, not all pteranodontoids were toothless, the earlier genera such as the istiodactylids and anhanguerids had teeth that they used to catch prey, and several conclusions had led to the idea that they later evolved into the toothless pteranodontids. Pteranodontoids were also the most diverse group of pterosaurs throughout the Cretaceous period, and therefore the most successful flyers during their time. They were mostly replaced by the larger azhdarchids at the end of the Late Cretaceous however, which resulted in resource and terrain competitions, but even so, pteranodontoids still managed to thrive with them, and genera such as Alcione, Barbaridactylus, and Simurghia lived until the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Pteranodontoids had similar a similar diet to modern-day soaring birds such the albatross, which mainly consisted of fish. Some genera of this group however, fed mainly on carrion, this can be seen on the earlier genera such as Istiodactylus. They were also known for their proportionally large wingspans, the largest recorded of any pteranodontoid reached 8.70 meters (28.5 ft), and it belongs to the genus Tropeognathus.
History of early discovered genera
Several fossil remains were found in the Chalk Formation of England, a chalk pit known for its wide variety of fossils belonging to different animals. British paleontologist James Scott Bowerbank named and described the specimens found as a new species of Pterodactylus, P. giganteus due to its much larger size. P. giganteus is nowadays considered to belong to the genus called Lonchodraco. In 1851, Bowerbank unearthed more specimens in the same chalk pit as P. giganteus, and assigned these specimens to yet another newly named species of Pterodactylus, known as P. cuvieri, in honor of the German naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier. Later that year, British paleontologist Sir Richard Owen had also unearthed several fossil specimens in the Chalk Formation, in which he assigned them as Pterodactylus compressirostris during its description. Owen later unearthed many fossil specimens from a different fossil site called the Cambridge Greensand, he then assigned these specimens into a new species called Pterodactylus simus. With the naming of this new species, British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley created a new separate genus called Ornithocheirus (from Ancient Greek "ὄρνις", meaning "bird", and "χεῖρ", meaning "hand"), due to the notion of the time, in which pterosaurs were the direct ancestors of birds. In 1870, Seeley then also reassigned Pterodactylus cuvieri into a new species called Ornithocheirus cuvieri. This species is now considered to belong to the genus Cimoliopterus. Back in 1874 however, controversies between the naming of species and genera of these pterosaurs started, with the paleontologists Harry Seeley and Richard Owen fighting over reassignings of different species as well as genera. Owen therefore created two new genera: Coloborhynchus (meaning "maimed beak") and Criorhynchus (meaning "ram beak"), in reference to their unique convex "keeled" crests on top, and underside of their snout. Owen then created a type species for Coloborhynchus, C. clavirostris, and sunk three species which were assigned previously to Ornithocheirus, and Criorhynchus consisted entirely of former Ornithocheirus species. Later in 1881 however, Seeley disagreed with Owen's conclusions, and he therefore assigned the species he named Ornithocheirus simus as the type species of Ornithocheirus.
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