Nova análise filogenética para o Clado Tapejaridae (Pterosauria)

Abstract

The Tapejardae family is a monophyletic group composed of toothless pterosaurs with exuberant crests, fundamental for understanding their relationships as those are the most frequently found and well preserved cranial structures. This family forms a clade composed of two subgroups, Tapejarinae (characteristicly short-rostrum pterosaurs) and Thalassodrominae (characteristicly elongated rostrum pterosaurs recognized as Tupuxuara-like). A relationship between Tupuxuara, Tapejara and Azhdarchidae, Tapejaridae's closest outgroup, is not yet well understood. This research aims to recover the evolutionary history of Tapejaridae by performing a meta-analysis on three phylogenetic matrices for the group. The characters of these matrices were compiled, selected and corrected, forming a new phylogenetic matrix. The phylogeny obtained is congruent with a hypothesis for the group, where Tapejaridae is a monophyletic group consisting of Tapejara + Tupuxuara-like and sister group of Azhdarchidae.