Aralazhdarcho
| Aralazhdarcho Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Fragment of a left humerus viewed from various angles | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Family: | †Azhdarchidae |
| Genus: | †Aralazhdarcho Averianov, 2007 |
| Species: | †A. bostobensis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Aralazhdarcho bostobensis Averianov, 2007 | |
| Synonyms | |
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Aralazhdarcho is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Santonian to the early Campanian ages of the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Kazakhstan. The type and only known species is Aralazhdarcho bostobensis, named and described by Russian paleontologist Alexander Averianov. Its remains were found in the Bostobe Formation of Kazakhstan. The generic name combines the Aral Sea and the related genus Azhdarcho, while the specific name refers to its origin from the Bostobe Formation.
Due to its toothless anatomy and the geological age of its fossil remains, Aralazhdarcho was assigned to the family Azhdarchidae. Phylogenetic analyses would often recover it in a clade alongside Phosphatodraco from Morocco. The pterosaur genus Samrukia has been speculated to be a junior synonym of Aralazhdarcho.