taxon_rank cathayopterus
Cathayopterus is a ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous - age Yixian Formation of Liaoning , China . It is a member of the ___MASK80___ of pterosaurian filter - feeders . The type ___MASK20___ is C . grabaui , described in 2006 by Wang and Zhou . A ___MASK76___ ( genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology . In the hierarchy of biological classification , ___MASK76___ comes above species and below family . In binomial nomenclature , the ___MASK76___ name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the ___MASK76___ . Vertebrates comprise all ___MASK20___ of animals within the ___MASK68___ Vertebrata ( chordates with backbones ). Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata , with currently about 64 , 000 ___MASK20___ described . Vertebrates include the jawless fish and the jawed vertebrates , which include the cartilaginous fish ( sharks and rays ) and the bony fish . Quetzalcoatlus northropi is an azhdarchid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous of North America ( Maastrichtian stage ) and one of the largest known flying animals of all time . It is a member of the ___MASK87___ Azhdarchidae , a ___MASK87___ of advanced toothless pterosaurs with unusually long , stiffened necks . Its name comes from the Mesoamerican feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl . Manchukuo was a puppet state in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia , which was governed under a ___MASK97___ of constitutional monarchy . The area , collectively known as Manchuria by westerners and Japanese , was designated by China ' s erstwhile Qing Dynasty as the " homeland " of the ruling ___MASK87___ ' s ethnic group , the Manchus , but the Manchus themselves never used " Manchuria " (  ) as a place name to refer to the area . In 1931 , the region was seized by Japan following the Mukden Incident and a pro - Japanese government was installed one year later with Puyi , the last Qing emperor , as the nominal regent and emperor . Manchukuo ' s government was abolished in 1945 after the defeat of Imperial Japan at the end of World War II . The territories formally claimed by the puppet state were first seized in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945 , and then formally transferred to Chinese administration in the following year . Basalt (, , , or ) is a common extrusive igneous ( volcanic ) rock formed from the rapid cooling of basaltic lava exposed at or very near the surface of a planet or moon . Flood basalt describes the formation in a ___MASK13___ of lava basalt flows . In biology , a ___MASK20___ ( abbreviated sp ., with the plural form ___MASK20___ abbreviated spp .) is the basic unit of biological classification and a taxonomic rank . A ___MASK20___ is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which two individuals can produce fertile offspring , typically by sexual reproduction . While this definition is often adequate , looked at more closely it is often problematic . For example , in a ___MASK20___ complex , the boundaries between closely related ___MASK20___ become unclear or disappear altogether . Other ways of defining ___MASK20___ include similarity of DNA , morphology , or ecological niche . The presence of locally adaptive traits may further subdivide ___MASK20___ into infraspecific taxa such as subspecies . A clade ( from , " klados ", " ___MASK66___ ") is a ___MASK80___ of organisms that consists of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants , and represents a single " ___MASK66___ " on the " tree of life ". The Triassic is a geologic period and system which spans 50 . 9 million years from the end of the Permian Period million years ago ( Mya ), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period Mya . The Triassic is the first period of the Mesozoic Era . Both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events . The Triassic was named in 1834 by Friedrich von Alberti , after the three distinct rock layers (" tri " meaning " three ") that are found throughout Germany and northwestern Europe  red beds , capped by marine limestone , followed by a ___MASK13___ of terrestrial mud - and sandstones  called the " Trias ". Reptiles are tetrapod ( four - limbed vertebrate ) animals in the ___MASK16___ Reptilia , comprising today ' s turtles , crocodilians , snakes , amphisbaenians , lizards , tuatara , and their extinct relatives . The study of these traditional reptile orders , historically combined with that of modern amphibians , is called herpetology . Hatzegopteryx (" Haeg basin wing ") is a ___MASK76___ of azhdarchid pterosaur found in the end - Maastrichtian deposits of Transylvania , Romania . It is known from only the type species , Hatzegopteryx thambema , named by Buffetaut " et al ." in 2002 based on parts of the skull and humerus . Additional specimens , including a neck vertebra , were later referred to the ___MASK76___ , representing a range of sizes . The largest of these remains indicate it was among the biggest pterosaurs , with an estimated wingspan of . The Yixian Formation is a geological formation in Jinzhou , Liaoning , People ' s Republic of China , that spans 11 million years during the early Cretaceous period . It is known for its exquisitely preserved fossils , and is mainly composed of basalts interspersed with siliciclastic sediments . In zoological nomenclature , a type ___MASK20___ (" ___MASK20___ typica ") is the ___MASK20___ name with which the name of a ___MASK76___ or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated , i . e ., the ___MASK20___ that contains the biological type specimen ( s ). A similar concept is used for suprageneric groups called a type ___MASK76___ . Pterosaurs ( meaning " winged lizard ") are flying reptiles of the extinct clade or ___MASK81___ Pterosauria . They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous ( 228 to 66 million years ago ). Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight . Their wings were formed by a membrane of skin , muscle , and other tissues stretching from the ankles to a dramatically lengthened fourth finger . Early ___MASK20___ had long , fully toothed jaws and long tails , while later forms had a highly reduced tail , and some lacked teeth . Many sported furry coats made up of hair - like filaments known as pycnofibers , which covered their bodies and parts of their wings . Pterosaurs spanned a wide range of adult sizes , from the very small anurognathids to the largest known flying creatures of all time , including " Quetzalcoatlus " and " Hatzegopteryx ". In biological classification , especially zoology , the type ___MASK76___ is the ___MASK76___ which defines a biological family and the root of the family name . Liaoning is a province of China , located in the northeast of the country . The modern province was established in 1907 as Fengtian or Fengtien province and the name was changed to Liaoning in 1929 . It was also known as Mukden province at the time , for the Manchu pronunciation of Shengjing , the former name of the provincial capital Shenyang . Under the Japanese - puppet Manchukuo regime , the province reverted to its 1907 name but the name Liaoning was restored in 1945 and again in 1954 .