Re: New name for Megalosaurus hesperis

[Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> Haven't Pterodactyloidea and Rhamphorhynchoidea been
> used as suborders since, like, forever?


Probably even longer than that.  However, Rhamphorhynchoidea tends not to be 
used these days, given that this "suborder" of long-tailed pterosaurs is 
paraphyletic.  

As for Pterodactyloidea and Pterodactylidae, I don't believe these are 
coordinate taxa, given that their attributions are usually given as Plieninger 
and von Meyer, respectively.  Pterodactylidae must be tied to _Pterodactylus_, 
but Pterodactyloidea is not coordinate with Pterodactylidae (apparently), as 
will not have _Pterodactylus_ as its type genus.

In any case, I haven't seen the taxon name Pterodactylidae used in recent 
phylogenies.  I have seen "superfamilies" assigned to Pterodactyloidea, such as 
Ctenochasmatoidea, Azhdarchoidea and Dsungaripteroidea; these are certainly 
coordinate family-level taxa which are tied to their respective families and 
genera.  But this appears *not* to be the case for the "suborder" 
Pterodactyloidea.


Cheers

Tim