Pterodactyloidea Pterodactyloidea Pterodactyloidea (derived from the Greek words "πτερόν" ("pterón", for usual "ptéryx") "wing", and "δάκτυλος" ("dáctylos") "finger" meaning "winged finger", "wing-finger" or "finger-wing") is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs ("wing lizards"), and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles. They appeared during the middle Jurassic Period, and differ from the basal (though paraphyletic) rhamphorhynchoids by their short tails and long wing metacarpals (hand bones). The most advanced forms also lack teeth, and by the late Cretaceous, all known pterodactyloids were toothless. Many species had well developed crests on the skull, a form of
South Polar region of the Cretaceous in the Early Cretaceous, and likely the ancestors of the endemic mammals of Australia arrived during the Jurassic across the supercontinent Pangaea. Several fossils of insects and crustaceans are known from South Polar Cretaceous sediments of New Zealand. The Late Cretaceous Mangaotanean Monro Conglomerate was situated at 68°S and provided fossils of "Helastia sp.", and the crab "Hemioon novozelandicum" was found in the Swale Siltstone, located at 76°S during the late Albian. Several specimens of insects were also found in the Tupuangi Formation of the Chatham Islands at a latitude of 79°S during the Cenomanian to Turonian. South Polar region