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 indicates a less powerful impact in the South Polar region. Given that the dinosaurs and other fauna of the polar regions of the Cretaceous were well adapted for living in long periods of dark and cold weather, it has been postulated that this community might have survived the event. The last temnospondyls–a group of giant amphibians which mainly died out after the Triassic–inhabited the South Polar region into the Early Cretaceous. "Koolasuchus", perhaps the last of the temnospondyls, is thought to have survived in regions where it was too cold for their competitors, the neosuchians–a group of reptiles containing modern