From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dermodactylus (meaning "skin finger",
from Greek derma and daktylos, in reference to pterosaur wings being skin
membranes supported by the ring fingers) was a genus of pterodactyloid
(general term for "short-tailed" pterosaur) pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison
Formation of Wyoming, USA. It is based on a single partial
bone, from the hand.
History and
classification
Dermodactylus is based on YPM 2000,[1] a distal right fourth metacarpal found by Samuel Wendell Williston at Como Bluff. This bone
constituted at the time the oldest pterosaur remains found,
recognized, and described from North America.[2]
Othniel Charles Marsh first named
it as a species of Pterodactylus:[3]
P. montanus, the specific name meaning "from the
mountains" in Latin, but soon
changed his mind and gave it a new generic name. At the same time
he assigned another wing bone, teeth, vertebrae, and a scapulacoracoid to it,[4]
but this material is probably too large to belong to the type
individual.[5]
Its place within the Pterosauria is uncertain, beyond the Pterodactyloidea.[6]
The material it is based on is too meager for further
classification (although Carpenter et al.. [2003] note
that the shape of the bone's articular end means that it did not
belong to an ornithocheirid, a type of short-tailed
pterosaur that often had a head crest and/or large teeth),[7]
or for adding additional remains to the genus with any certainty,
and so it is now regarded as a dubious pterodactyloid.[7][8][9][10]
It was not even mentioned in the most recent major popular work on
pterosaurs.[11]
Paleobiology
Marsh suggested it had a wingspan of 1.5-1.8 meters (5-6 feet),[4]
but this is including the material excluded by Peter Wellnhofer,
who estimates the wingspan of the only known individual at 1 meter
(3.28 feet).[2]
John Foster estimates its weight
at 3.3 kilograms (7.3 pounds). It would
probably have been a small aerial carnivore.[12]
References
- ^
YPM=Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven,
Connecticut.
- ^ a
b
Wellnhofer, Peter (1996) [1991].
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs. New York:
Barnes and Noble Books. p. 105. ISBN
0-7607-0154-7.
- ^ Marsh, Othniel Charles (1878).
"New pterodactyl from the Jurassic of the Rocky Mountains".
American Journal of Science, series 3 16:
233–234.
- ^ a
b
Marsh, Othniel Charles (1881).
"Note on American pterodactyls". American Journal of Science,
series 3 21: 342–343.
- ^ Wellnhofer, Peter (1978).
Pterosauria. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, Teil
19. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer. p. 65. ISBN
3437302698.
- ^ Wellnhofer, Peter (1996) [1991].
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs. New York:
Barnes and Noble Books. p. 107. ISBN
0-7607-0154-7.
- ^ a
b
Carpenter, Kenneth; Unwin, David M.;
Cloward, Karen; Miles, Clifford A.; and Miles, Clark (2003). "A new scaphognathine
pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic Formation of Wyoming, USA".
in Buffetaut, Eric; and Mazin, Jean- Michel (eds.). Evolution
and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs. Geological Society of
London, Special Publications, 217. London:
Geological Society of London. pp. 45–54. ISBN
1-86239-143-2. https://scientists.dmns.org/sites/kencarpenter/PDFs%20of%20publications/Harpactognathus.pdf. Retrieved
2007-03-02.
- ^ Harris, Jerald D.; Carpenter, Kenneth
(1996). "A large pterodactyloid from
the Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic) of Garden Park,
Colorado". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie
Monatshefte 8: 473–484. https://scientists.dmns.org/sites/kencarpenter/PDFs%20of%20publications/Kepodactylus.pdf. Retrieved
2007-03-02.
- ^ Glut, Donald F. (2006). "Dermodactylus".
Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia. 4th Supplement. Jefferson,
North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.. p. 598. ISBN
0-7864-2295-5.
- ^ King, Lorin R.; Foster, John R.; and Scheetz,
Rodney D. (2006). "New pterosaur specimens from the Morrison
Formation and a summary of the Late Jurassic pterosaur record of
the Rocky Mountain region". in Foster, John R.; and Lucas, Spencer
G. (eds.). Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Morrison
Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
Bulletin, 36. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico
Museum of Natural History and Science.
pp. 149–161.
- ^ Unwin, David M. (2006). The Pterosaurs:
From Deep Time. New York: Pi Press. pp. 1–347. ISBN ISBN
0-13-146308-X.
- ^ Foster, John R. (2003). Paleoecological
Analysis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Morrison Formation (Upper
Jurassic), Rocky Mountain Region, U.S.A.. New Mexico Museum of
Natural History and Science Bulletin, 23.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and
Science. p. 37.
Further
reading
- James A. Jensen, John H. Ostrom
(July 1977). "A Second Jurassic Pterosaur from North America".
Journal of Paleontology 51 (4):
867–870.
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