Just when we thought 2025's track record in paleontology couldn't get any crazier, a paper has been released regarding azhdarchids and Quetzalcoatlus in particular. More on the latter in a moment.
Reconstruction included in paper by Kyra Zhuravel. Cryodrakon boreas, Hatzegopteryx thambema, Arambourgiania philadelphiae and Quetzalcoatlus northropi in that order. Very neat indeed.
Named "Enter the dragons: the phylogeny of Azhdarchoidea and the evolution of giant size in pterosaurs" by Henry Thomas, this study looks into the relationships of azhdarchoids to each other and creates 3 new clades to help organize them better.
Shenzhoupterinae: a subfamily below Chaoyangopteridae that contains Shenzhoupterus and is a sister taxon to Chaoyangopterinae.
Concilazhia: an unranked clade that connects the aforementioned Chaoyangopteridae to Azhdarchiformes as sister taxa.
Serpennata: a clade below the tribe Quetzalcoatlini which essentially groups all the members who are large late-surviving fellas with super long necks such as Quetzalocoatlus and Arambougiania.
Image of the new phylogenetic ranks in relation to others.
Now, about Quetz itself. The genus has been recovered as polyphyletic. Q. lawsoni, the tiny species everyone bases their reconstructions off of, turns out to be a whole different taxon somewhere else in the Serpennata and more closely related to other unnamed quetzalcoatliines. Q. northropi is just fine where it's at, but will now be alone in its genus when the little guy is reclassified.
The scientists didn't name it anything new or created a new genus for it, but did make us aware of its relationship with other pterosaurs. So as things stand, it's still a "species" of Quetzalcoatlus, but will need reclassification, not unlike other genera like Velociraptor osmolskae or Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis.
Thank you for reading, just found this out today thanks to @Ganimes so shout out to him keeping an eye on new papers!
