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
Makuleke Gorge and in these can be found fragments of bone and probably wood representing both holdovers from the Permian–Triassic extinction event like glossopetrids (a type of tree) and dicynodonts (a form of mammal-like reptile), and new forms that would dominate the Mesozoic, including modern conifers, cycads and of course dinosaurs, such as "Euskelosaurus". Most of the sandstones in the Pafuri region however probably represent the great age of dinosaurs – the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. During the early parts of the Jurassic, which lasted from approximately 210 million years ago until about 144 million years ago, the area was almost