'Parapsicephalus' and the Eurovision Song Contest

[Unwin <h0662eka@rz.hu-berlin.de>]

'Parapsicephalus'

According to Peters (22.05.2003)

'Parapsicephalus, as far as I know, is known from two three-dimensional skulls. 
One was discovered over a hundred years ago and one is more recent. They appear 
to be congeneric, but not conspecific. I don't know if anyone is working with 
this pivotal taxon. Unwin, Lü and Bakhurina (2000) don't even list it in there 
classification table.' 


'Parapsicephalus' purdoni is currently represented by a single incomplete skull 
lacking teeth, the anterior end of the skull and the mandibles. I am unaware of 
any other pterosaur skull material from the Yorkshire Lias that has been 
assigned to this taxon. If anyone has information to the contrary I would be 
most interested to hear of it. 'Parapsicephalus' is not listed in Unwin et al 
2000 because we considered it to be synonymous with Dorygnathus, which is 
listed...


Pterodactyloid monophyly

Pterodactyloidea is one of the most strongly supported nodes within Pterosauria 
(not that anyone is likely to be surprised to hear this) and supported by at 
least six clear cut characters. Doubtless one could find many more 
synapomorphies of Pterodactyloidea if one had the time to look for them. 
Consequently if one wishes to argue that Pterodactyloidea is in fact 
polyphyletic... 

Peters 22.05.2003
'
At this point the "Pterodactyloidea" appears to be diphyletic with the 
narrow-snouted scaphognaths leading toward the even narrower-snouted 
germanodactylids and subsequently to the sword-snouted clades (Dsungaripteridae 
+ Nyctosauridae + Pteranodon + Tapejaridae). On the other side of the family 
tree the toothy, broad-snouted dorygnaths appear to lead toward the remainder 
of the "Pterodactyloidea". I outlined the division between the sword snouts and 
straight snouts at an SVP convention in 1997, but I didn't think, at that time, 
that the division preceded the emergence of the Pterodactyloidea.'


...it would be necessary to find at least seven clear cut synapomorphies that 
supported a relationship between, for example, 'scaphognaths' and the putative 
clade (Dsungaripteridae + Nyctosauridae + Pteranodon + Tapejaridae), but that 
were not present in any other pterodactyloids or other basal clades of 
pterosaurs. A quick flick through Wellnhofer's encyclopedia is quite sufficient 
to show that that such a character distribution is even less likely than the 
total number of points scored by the United Kingdom in the recent Eurovision 
Song Contest. 

Cheers,

Dave

PS I'm glad to see that the taxonomy of Pterodactylus and Germanodactylus has 
now been fully clarified. 

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David M. Unwin PhD

Institut fur Palaontologie, MUSEUM FUR NATURKUNDE 
Zentralinstitut der Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin
Invalidenstrasse 43, D-10115 Berlin, GERMANY

Email: david.unwin@rz.hu-berlin.de

Telephone numbers:
0049 30 2093 8577 (office)
0049 30 2093 8862 (department secretary)
0049 30 2093 8868 (fax)
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