Dermodactylus

{{Short description|Genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Dermodactylus.png

| image_alt =

| image_caption = Holotype metacarpal

| fossil_range = {{fossil range|Late Jurassic}}

| extinct = yes

| genus = Dermodactylus

| species = montanus

| parent_authority = Marsh, 1881

| authority = (Marsh, 1878)

| synonyms = *Pterodactylus montanus
Marsh, 1878

| synonyms_ref =

| subdivision_ranks =

| subdivision =

}}

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, United States. It is based on a single partial bone, from the hand.

History and classification

Dermodactylus is based on a single distal right fourth metacarpal found by Samuel Wendell Williston at Como Bluff, Wyoming in 1878; this bone is currently housed in the collections of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut (YPM 2020YPM=Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, Connecticut.). This bone constituted at the time the oldest pterosaur remains found, recognized, and described from North America.{{cite book |last=Wellnhofer |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Wellnhofer |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs |orig-year=1991 |year=1996 |publisher=Barnes and Noble Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7607-0154-6 |page= 105 }} Othniel Charles Marsh first named it as a species of Pterodactylus:{{cite journal |last=Marsh |first=Othniel Charles |author-link=Othniel Charles Marsh |year=1878 |title=New pterodactyl from the Jurassic of the Rocky Mountains |journal=American Journal of Science |series=Series 3 |volume=16 |issue=93 |pages=233–234 |doi=10.2475/ajs.s3-16.93.233 |bibcode=1878AmJS...16..233M |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2270694 }} 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 scapula coracoid to it,{{cite journal |last=Marsh |first=Othniel Charles |author-link=Othniel Charles Marsh |year=1881 |title=Note on American pterodactyls |journal=American Journal of Science |series=Series 3 |volume=21 |issue=124 |pages=342–343 |doi=10.2475/ajs.s3-21.124.342 |bibcode=1881AmJS...21..342M |doi-access=free }} but this material is probably too large to belong to the type individual.{{cite book |last=Wellnhofer |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Wellnhofer |title=Pterosauria |series=Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, Teil 19 |year=1978 |publisher=Gustav Fischer |location=Stuttgart |isbn=978-3-437-30269-5 |page=65 }}

Its place within the Pterosauria is uncertain, beyond the Pterodactyloidea.{{cite book |last=Wellnhofer |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Wellnhofer |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs |orig-year=1991 |year=1996 |publisher=Barnes and Noble Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7607-0154-6 |page= 107 }} 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),{{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Carpenter |author2=Unwin, David M. |author3=Cloward, Karen |author4=Miles, Clifford A. |author5= Miles, Clark |chapter=A new scaphognathine pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic Formation of Wyoming, USA |editor=Buffetaut, Eric |editor2=Mazin, Jean- Michel |title=Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs |url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionpalaeob00publ |url-access=limited |year=2003 |series=Geological Society of London, Special Publications, 217|publisher=Geological Society of London |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionpalaeob00publ/page/n51 45]–54 |isbn= 978-1-86239-143-7 }} or for adding additional remains to the genus with any certainty, and so it is now regarded as a dubious pterodactyloid.{{cite journal |last=Harris |first=Jerald D. |author2=Carpenter, Kenneth |year=1996 |title=A large pterodactyloid from the Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic) of Garden Park, Colorado |journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte |volume=8 |pages=473–484 }}{{cite book |last=Glut |first=Donald F. |author-link=Donald F. Glut |title=Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia. 4th Supplement |year=2006 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-0-7864-2295-1 |chapter=Dermodactylus |page=598 }}{{cite book |last=King |first=Lorin R. |author2=Foster, John R. |author3= Scheetz, Rodney D. |chapter=New pterosaur specimens from the Morrison Formation and a summary of the Late Jurassic pterosaur record of the Rocky Mountain region|editor=Foster, John R. |editor2=Lucas, Spencer G. |title=Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation |year=2006 |series=New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin |volume=36 |publisher=New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science |location=Albuquerque, New Mexico |pages=149–161 }} It was not even mentioned in the most recent major popular work on pterosaurs.{{cite book |last=Unwin |first=David M. |author-link=David M. Unwin |title=The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time |year=2006 |publisher=Pi Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-13-146308-0 |pages=1–347 }}

Paleobiology

Marsh suggested it had a wingspan of {{convert|1.5|-|1.8|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}}, but this is including the material excluded by Peter Wellnhofer, who estimates the wingspan of the only known individual at {{convert|1|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}}. John Foster estimates its weight at {{convert|3.3|kg|lb|abbr=off}}. It would probably have been a small aerial carnivore.{{cite book |last=Foster |first=John R. |title=Paleoecological Analysis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Rocky Mountain Region, U.S.A. |year=2003 |series=New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 23 |publisher=New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science |location=Albuquerque, New Mexico |page=37}}

Dermodactylus

History and classification

Paleobiology

See also

References

Further reading