Luopterus

Luopterus
Time Period:	Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic(Bathonian to Oxfordian)
Diet:	Insectivore?
Area:	Tiaojishan Formation(Qinglong county, Heibei Province, China)
Scientific classifiation:	Anurognathidae
Species:	L. mutoudengensis
Synonyms:	Dendrorhynchoides mutoudengensis

Luopterus is a genus of relatively small Anurognathid from China, containing one species, that was once referred to as a Dendrorhynchoides species.

Discovery and Naming

The holotype of Luopterus was discovered in Qinglong, in the northern Hebei Province of China. Based on the morphology of the skeleton, it was assigned to Dendrorhynchoides, but it was distinct enough to get its own seperate species within that genus. Lü and Hone described the new species in 2010, Dendrorhynchoides mutoudengensis, after Mutoudeng, the locality in the formation where the holotype was found. In 2020, David Hone would erect a new genus for Dendrorhynchoides mutoudengensis, after he found it distinct enough from Dendrorhynchoides. He named the new genus Luopterus mutoudengensis, after Lü.

Description

Luopterus mutoudengensis is characterized by "the presence of short, robust and straight teeth, and bearing wing metacarpal approximately 40% of the length of humerus". Those same distinguishing features would also make it distinct from Dendrorhynchoides enough for its own new genus a decade later. Luopterus is also one of the first Anurognathids with preserved caudal material, holding a rather long tail. Dendrorhynchoides was also thought to have a long tail, but that was disproven.

Classification

In a 2021 phylogenetic analysis of Anurognathids by Xuefang Wei and his colleagues, Luopterus was nested deep within Anurognathidae in the subfamily Anurognathinae. The analysis shows Luopterus to be more derived and advanced than Dendrorhynchoides, but cladistically more primitive to Jeholopterus.

Anurognathidae	"Dimorphodon" weintraubi Batrachognathinae Batrachognathus Sinomacrops Anurognathinae Dendrorhynchoides Luopterus Jeholopterus Anurognathus Vesperopterylus

Paleoecology

Luopterus lived in the Tiaojishan Formation, which back then would have subtropical to temperate warm and humid climates. Luopterus would have lived alongside many dinosaurs; Epidexipteryx hui, Pedopenna daohugouensis, Epidendrosaurus ningchengensis(=Scansoriopteryx heilmanni), Serikornis sungei, Anchiornis huxleyi, Xiaotingia zhengi, Tianyulong confuciusi, Eosinopteryx brevipenna, Aurornis xui, Yi qi, and Caihong juji.

Luopterus would also have lived alongside other creatures such as:

• An indeterminate testudine and an indeterminate Urodelan
• Mammals such as Castorocauda, Rugosodon, Vilevolodon diplomylos, and Docofossor brachydactylus.
• Pterosaurs such as Jeholopterus, Pterorhynchus, Wukongopterus lii, all three species of Darwinopterus, and Kunpengopterus sinensis.