Discover Top Posts Tagged with #gaynerdcomic

Pterodactylus antiquus, P. kochi

By Julio Lacerda, on @paleoart, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.

A reminder that we will not be able to do every pterosaur until we reach $240 in donations on our patreon, so please donate even a dollar if you can.

Name: Pterodactylus antiquus, P. kochi

Name Meaning: Winged Finger

First Described: 1809

Described By: Cuvier

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Pterodactyliformes, Caelidracones, Pterodactyloidea, Archaeopterodactyloidea, Euctenochasmatia

Pterodactylus is the classical Pterosaur, and as such, was a hell of a wastebasket taxon - an infinite number of pterosaurs were thrown into this genus without any sort of care or concern for the accuracy of that assignment. However, in the enlightenment of later paleontology, it has been reduced to one definite and one possible species. Pterodactylus itself lived about 150 to 148 million years ago, in the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic, and is known from the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany. Pterodactylus is known from over thirty fossils, though most of them are juveniles; it was a fairly small pterosaur, with a 1.04 meter long wingspan as an adult. It had a long and thin skull with many conical teeth that extend back into the jaw. It had a crest made of soft tissues that extended behind the back of the skull as adults, indicating that it was a display structure, mainly used when the animal was an adult for display. Soft tissue is also possible on these crest to extend it.

By Matt Martyniuk, CC BY-SA 4.0

Pterodactylus has a well documented growth pattern, growing continuously throughout life like a Crocodile, rather than a bird. The proportions, size and shape of the skull, and the number of teeth changed as it grew. The youngest specimens had as few as 15 teeth, and were broader than that of adults, with older individuals gaining more, narrower teeth. There are two distinct year classes of Pterodactylus - the first year class with skulls only about 15 to 45 mm long, and second year class about 55 to 95 mm long. A third year class with larger specimens show signs of immaturity, too, so adults remain a mystery for this genus. However, these year classes indicate that Pterodactylus probably bred seasonally. Living in a marine environment, it likely preyed upon small animals and potentially fish.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterodactylus

http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/pterodactylus.html

Shout out goes to @gaynerdcomic!