yet still too different from known species to be assigned to them, so he created a new species for the genus the fossil most resembled. Later authors have consistently denied the identity referring to the taxon as "Cearadactylus" ligabuei. Dalla Vecchia estimated the wingspan of "C." ligabuei at ; Kellner, pointing out that the skull is not larger than the C. atrox holotype, estimated it at at the most. Dalla Vecchia assigned C. ligabuei to the Cearadactylidae. Kellner concluded it was probably a member of Anhangueridae; Unwin in 2002 even named it Anhanguera ligabuei. In 2005, Steel et al. suggested that it was a Coloborhynchus ligabuei. Description The wingspan of Cearadactylus was by the describers estimated to have been around , with a weight of perhaps . Peter Wellnhofer in 1991 estimated a wingspan of 5.5 meters (18 ft). Classification Leonardi did abstain from assigning the genus to a family. Wellnhofer created a special family called Cearadactylidae, but this concept is no longer used. In 2000, Alexander Kellner concluded that it was related to, but lacking a crest not part of, the Anhangueridae within the larger group Pteranodontoidea sensu Kellner. In 2002 however, David Unwin stated it was a highly deviant member of the family Ctenochasmatidae. In 2010, Kellner entered the new information into three existing databases of pterosaur features, to calculate through cladistic analysis the position of Cearadactylus in the phylogenetic tree. Although the three resulting trees differed, all had in common that Cearadactylus was close to the Anhangueridae. In 2012, Pereda-Suberbiola et al. found Cearadactylus within the group Ctenochasmatoidea, part of a polytomy that also comprises Gnathosaurus and Ardeadactylus (identified as Pterodactylus longicolum in the analysis). Subsequent recent analysis however, have found Cearadactylus as a member of the group Anhangueria, and depending on the different analyses, Cearadactylus is either placed in a more derived or basal position. A phylogenetic analysis by Pentland et al. in 2019 for example, had found Cearadactylus in a derived position within the Anhangueria, just outside the Ornithocheirae, which, by their definition, is the clade that contains the families Ornithocheiridae and Anhangueridae. Their cladogram is shown on the left. Other studies however, have concluded that Cearadactylus is a member of the family Anhangueridae, more specifically a member of the subfamily Anhanguerinae, sister taxon to Maaradactylus. The cladogram on the right shows a topology made by Borja Holgado and Rodrigo Pêgas in 2020. Topology 1: