Tapejarid

Tapejarids Temporal range: Early to Late Cretaceous, 125–85 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Reconstructed skeleton of Tapejara wellnhoferi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	†Pterosauria
Suborder:	†Pterodactyloidea
Clade:	†Tapejaromorpha
Family:	†Tapejaridae Kellner, 1989
Type species
†Tapejara wellnhoferi Kellner, 1989
Genera
†Montanazhdarcho? †Sinopterus †Tapejarinae †Aymberedactylus †Bakonydraco †Caiuajara †Caupedactylus †Europejara †Tapejara †Tupandactylus

Tapejaridae (meaning "the old beings") are a family of pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Cretaceous period. Members are currently known from Brazil, Hungary, Morocco,Spain and China, where the most primitive genera are found, indicating that the family has an Asian origin.

Tapejarids were small to medium-sized pterosaurs with several unique, shared characteristics, mainly relating to the skull. Most tapejarids possessed a bony crest arising from the snout (formed mostly by the premaxillary bones of the upper jaw tip). In some species, this bony crest is known to have supported an even larger crest of softer, fibrous tissue that extends back along the skull. Tapejarids are also characterized by their large nasoantorbital fenestra, the main opening in the skull in front of the eyes, which spans at least half the length of the entire skull in this family. Their eye sockets were small and pear-shaped. Studies of tapejarid brain cases show that they had extremely good vision, more so than in other pterosaur groups, and probably relied nearly exclusively on vision when hunting or interacting with other members of their species. Tapejarids had unusually reduced shoulder girdles that would have been slung low on the torso, resulting in wings that protruded from near the belly rather than near the back, a "bottom decker" arrangement reminiscent of some planes.

Tapejaridae was defined by Alexander Kellner in 1989 as the clade containing both Tapejara and Tupuxuara, plus all descendants of their most recent common ancestor. As originally conceived, it was composed of two subfamilies: the Tapejarinae of "Huaxiapterus" corollatus, Sinopterus, Tapejara, Tupandactylus, Europejara, Caiuajara, and possibly Bakonydraco, and the Thalassodrominae of Thalassodromeus and Tupuxuara.