In 2010 the discovery of the holotype, a juvenile, was announced, that proved that a more elongated tail was present after all, albeit not so long as the faked tail of the holotype of Dendrorhynchoides (the animal it was first assigned to): about 85% of femur length.[2] This specimen eventually was designated as the holotype of a new species, Dendrorhynchoides mutoudengensis, by Hone and Lü in 2012.[3] The specimen was originally stored in the Guilin Geological Museum and designated GLGMV 0002; later it was moved to the Jinzhou Paleontological Museum and designated JZMP-04-07-3.[3] In 2020, Hone recognized that D. mutoudengensis was as distinct from D. curvidentatus as other species of anurognathids were from each other, and elevated it to a new genus and combination Luopterus mutoudengensis, named after the late Lü Junchang.[1]
Classification
In 2021, a phylogenetic analysis conducted by Xuefang Wei and colleagues recovered Luopterus within the subfamily Anurognathinae, a subfamily within the family Anurognathidae. Within this subfamily, Luopterus was in more derived position than Dendrorhynchoides.[4] Below is a cladogram representing their phylogenetic analysis:
^ abHone, D.W.E. (2020). "A review of the taxonomy and palaeoecology of the Anurognathidae (Reptilia, Pterosauria)". Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition. 94 (5): 1676–1692. doi:10.1111/1755-6724.14585.
^Hone, D.W.E.; Lü, J. (2010). "A New Specimen of Dendrorhynchoides (Pterosauria: Anurognathidae) with a Long Tail and the Evolution of the Pterosaurian Tail". Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31 (Supp. 1): 29–30.
^ abLü, J.; Hone, D.W.E. (2012). "A New Chinese Anurognathid Pterosaur and the Evolution of Pterosaurian Tail Lengths". Acta Geologica Sinica. 86 (6): 1317–1325. doi:10.1111/1755-6724.12002.
