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Day 369#: Ludodactylus sibbicki

Today’s animal of the day is Ludodactylus sibbicki!

Image credit: Vitor-Silva on DeviantArt

This species of pterosaur lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now the Araripe Basin of Ceará, Brazil. It bears a striking resemblance to the famous Pteranodon longiceps (which I covered on day 24#); however, unlike Pteranodon, whose name literally translates to “toothless wing”, Ludodactylus had a beak full of needle-like shark teeth. Ludodactylus was actually the first pterosaur discovered to have both a crest and teeth, whereas most previously discovered pterosaurs had only one or the other. Despite this, the people in charge of depicting Pteranodon in toys and movies would often give it teeth, and so when this new toothed pterosaur was discovered in 2003, it was given the name Ludodactylus to reference this. While its name directly translates to “play finger”, the Latin word ludus is supposed to reference toys, while the dactylus is supposed to refer to the name Pterodactyl, which Pteranodon is often incorrectly called.

Image credit: cisiopurple on DeviantArt

Despite its superficial resemblance to Pteranodon, Ludodactylus was not actually all that closely related to it. While Pteranodon belonged to the family Pteranodonidae, which had long toothless beaks and elongated head crests, Ludodactylus belonged to the family Anhangueridae, which typically had teeth but no crests. Ludodactylus was believed to be sort of the black sheep of the Anhangueridae family, since for a while it was the only species known to have a crest, but since its discovery, another closely related pterosaur, called Caulkicephalus, was actually discovered to also possess teeth and a long head crest. Just like in Pteranodon, these head crests were likely used to attract mates and were probably larger in males than they were in females, if females even had crests at all. Sadly, the exact size and shape of Ludodactylus’ crest are currently unknown since the holotype specimen, which is the only specimen we have of Ludodactylus at the moment, was also discovered by fossil poachers, who cut the fossil from the rock and accidentally cut off the crest before they illegally sold it. Though while researching this, I learned that there's actually a complete skull that could potential belong to Ludodactylus that has an intact head crest. The only problem is that it currently belongs to a private fossil collector in Germany and hasn't been described yet. I lowkey hate private fossil collectors. Btw the private sale of fossils is illegal in Brazil, so this skull was likely illegally smuggled out of the country and auctioned off.

Original Ludodactylus holotype specimen (photo credit: Zhiheng Li, Zhonghe Zhou, and Julia A. Clarke)

Potential Ludodactylus specimen (photo credit: Günther Bechly)

The holotype specimen of Ludodactylus is unique and actually kind of sad for another reason as well. The individual preserved seems to have somehow had a piece of yucca plant stab its lower beak. How exactly this happened is unknown, perhaps it crash-landed into the plant or was trying to capture a small animal hiding within the plants and accidentally bit the sharp leaf instead. Regardless of how it happened, this event eventually led to the poor animal’s death. The part of the leaf sticking out of the beak is frayed, which implies that it was trying to dislodge it by rubbing it against something, but was unsuccessful and eventually starved to death. Poor fella. The body probably ended up somehow getting washed out to sea and then got covered by sediment, which is how it became so well-preserved.

Image credit: Universal Stuidos (Jurassic Park III)

On a much less depressing note, because they look so similar, I always like to headcanon that any pterosaur designs in movies/tv shows/video games that are clearly supposed to be Pteranodon but have teeth are actually Ludodactylus. The Pteranodons in Jurassic Park III are my favorite example of this, and it’s actually pretty neat since that movie only came out a few years before Ludodactylus was discovered. Also, I’m just gonna say that despite having teeth, the JP3 Pteranodon is so much better than the abominations that show up in the Jurassic World movies. Sorry, I hate them so much. They did Pteranodon so dirty in those movies.

#animal of the day #animals #random animal of the day #nature #pterosaur #pterosaurs #ludodactylus #flying reptile #early cretaceous #extinct animal #extinct animals #jurassic park 3 #extinct creatures #reptile #reptiles #flying reptiles #prehistoric creature #prehistoric animals #prehistoric creatures

just some pterosaurs nothing special

#ludodactylus #anhanguera #anurognathus #pterosaurs #paleoart

Tales of dragon hier: Shelly Ludod

Name: Shelly Ludod Age: 40 years old Gender: Female Sexuality: Asexual personality: fiercely loyal, stern, and sadistic, psychotic Born in place: Hollow earth Species: ántres drákos (Ludodactylus) Voice actress: Jessica Vosk - Lute from Hazbin Hotel