Ornithocheiroidea

Ornithocheiroidea is a group of pterosaurs within the extinct suborder Pterodactyloidea. The Ornithocheiroidea was originally defined as an apomorphy-based taxon by Christopher Bennett in 1994. It was given a relationship-based definition in 2003 by Alexander Kellner, who defined it as the least inclusive clade containing Anhanguera blittersdorffi, Pteranodon longiceps, Dsungaripterus weii, and Quetzalcoatlus northropi. Later that year, David Unwin suggested a more restrictive definition, the clade that contains Pteranodon longiceps and Istiodactylus latidens. Brian Andres (2008, 2010, 2014) in his analyses, defined Ornithocheiroidea using the definition of Kellner (2003) to avoid confusion with similarly-defined groups, like Pteranodontoidea. Below is a cladogram showing the results of a phylogenetic analysis presented by Longrich, Martill, and Andres, 2018.