Germanodactylus

Taxobox
name = "Germanodactylus"
fossil_range = Late Jurassic

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image_caption = "Germanodactylus" ("Daitingopterus") "rhamphastinus"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
ordo = Pterosauria
subordo = Pterodactyloidea
superfamilia = Dsungaripteroidea
familia = Germanodactylidae
genus = "Germanodactylus"
genus_authority = Yang, 1964
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
*"G. cristatus" (Wiman, 1925 (originally "Pterodactylus") (type species))
*?"G. rhamphastinus" (possibly "Daitingopterus") (Wagner, 1851 (originally "Ornithocephalus")

"Germanodactylus" ("German finger") is a genus of dsungaripteroid pterodactyloid pterosaur from Late Jurassic-age rocks of Germany, including the Solnhofen limestone. Its specimens were long thought to pertain to "Pterodactylus". Its head crest is a distinctive feature.

Description

"Germanodactylus" is described as being "raven-sized" in weight.cite book |last=Unwin |first=David M. |authorlink=David M. Unwin |title=The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time |year=2006 |publisher=Pi Press |location=New York |isbn=ISBN 0-13-146308-X |pages=246] "G. cristatus" had a 0.98 wingspan (3.2 ft) and a 13 centimeter long (5.1 in) skull, while "G. rhaphastinus" was somewhat larger, with a 1.08 meter wingspan (3.5 ft) and a skull 21 centimeters long (8.3 in).cite book |last=Wellnhofer |first=Peter |authorlink=Peter Wellnhofer |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs |origyear=1991 |year=1996 |publisher=Barnes and Noble Books |location=New York |isbn=0-7607-0154-7 |pages=95-96 ]

Head crest

"Germanodactylus" is known for its head crest, which had a bony portion (a low ridge running up the midline of the skull) and a soft-tissue portion that more than doubled its height. The bony part does not go as far up the head in "G. cristatus" as in "G. rhamphastinus". The soft-tissue portion was not known early on, being first described in 2002 by S. Christopher Bennett. It was probably composed of cornified epidermis. "Germanodactylus" is the first genus for which a soft-tissue component of the crest is known, but similar structures were probably widespread among pterosaurs.cite journal |last=Bennett |first=S. Christopher |authorlink=S. Christopher Bennett |year=2002 |title=Soft tissue preservation of the cranial crest of the pterosaur "Germanodactylus" from Solnhofen |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=43–48 |doi=10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022 [0043:STPOTC] 2.0.CO;2 |doilabel=10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022[0043:STPOTC]2.0.CO;2]

Classification

This genus is unspecialized compared to the pterosaurs of the Cretaceous, and has had varying placements in Pterosauria. Yang Zhongjian, who named the genus, gave it its own family Germanodactylidae.cite journal |last=Zhongjian |first=Yang |authorlink=Yang Zhongjian |year=1964 |title=On a new pterosaurian from Sinkiang, China |journal=Vertebrata PalAsiatic |volume=8 |pages=221–255 ] Bennett included the genus in the family Pterodactylidae,cite journal |last=Bennett |first=S. Christopher |authorlink=S. Christopher Bennett |year=2006 |title=Juvenile specimens of the pterosaur "Germanodactylus cristatus", with a revision of the genus |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=872–878 |doi=10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26 [872:JSOTPG] 2.0.CO;2 |doilabel=10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[872:JSOTPG]2.0.CO;2] and Alexander W.A. Kellner found it to be related to "Pterodactylus" in his 2003 phylogenetic analysis.cite book |last=Kellner |first=Alexander W.A. |year=2003 |chapter=Pterosaur phylogeny and comments on the evolutionary history of the group |editor=Buffetaut, Eric; and Mazin, Jean-Michel |title=Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs |series=Geological Society Special Publication 217 |publisher=The Geological Society |location=London |pages=105-137 |isbn=1-86239-143-2] David M. Unwin, on the other hand, preferred to consider it a basal dsungaripteroid,Unwin, David M. (2003) "On the phylogeny and evolutionary history of pterosaurs", in "Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs", 139-190.] Unwin, David M. (2006). "The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time", 273.] a group that evolved into dedicated shellfish-eaters.Unwin, David M. (2006). "The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time", 84-85.]

History

"G. cristatus" is based on specimen BSP 1892.IV.1, from the Solnhofen limestone of Eichstätt, Germany. It was originally described by Pleininger in 1901 as a specimen of "Pterodactylus kochi",cite journal |last=Plieninger |first=F. |year=1901 |title=Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Flugsaurier |journal=Palaeontographica |volume=48 |pages=65–90 ] and was given its current species name by Carl Wiman in 1925.cite journal |last=Wiman |first=Carl |authorlink=Carl Wiman |year=1925 |title=Über "Pterodactylus Westmanni" und andere Flugsaurier |journal=Bulletin of the Geological Institution of the University of Uppsala |volume=20 |pages=1–38] Yang Zhongjian determined that it deserved its own genus in 1964. Second species "G. ramphastinus" (later revised to "rhamphastinus") was named as a distinct species long before "G. cristatus", described by Johann Andreas Wagner in 1851 as a species of the deprecated genus "Ornithocephalus". It is based on specimen BSP AS.I.745, a skeleton from the slightly younger Mörnsheimer Limestone of Daiting, Germany.cite journal |last=Wagner |first Johann Andreas |authorlink=Johann Andreas Wagner |year=1851 |title=Beschreibung einer neuen Art von "Ornithocephalus", nebst kritischer Vergleichung der in der k. palaeontologischen Sammlung zu München aufgestellten Arten aus dieser Gattung |journal=Abhandlungen der koniglichen bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |volume=6 |pages=1–64 |language=German] Peter Wellnhofer added it to "Germanodactylus" in 1970,cite journal |last=Wellnhofer |first=Peter |authorlink=Peter Wellnhofer |year=1970 |title=Die Pterodactyloidea (Pterosauria) der Oberjura-Plattenkalke Süddeutschlands |journal=Abhandlung der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |volume=141 |pages=1–133] although Maisch and his coauthors have suggested that it deserves its own genus, "Daitingopterus"cite journal |last=Maisch |first=M.W. |coauthors=Matzke, A.T.; and Ge Sun |year=2004 |title=A new dsungaripteroid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of the southern Junggar Basin, north-west China |journal=Cretaceous Research |volume=25 |pages=625–634 |doi=10.1016/j.cretres.2004.06.002] David M. Unwin has also referred miscellaneous limb bones and vertebrae from the somewhat older Kimmeridge Clay of Dorset, England to the genus; these finds at the time marked the earliest appearance of short-tailed pterosaurs in the fossil record.cite journal |last=Unwin |first=David M. |authorlink=David M. Unwin |year=1988 |title=A new pterosaur from the Kimmeridge Clay of Kimmeridge, Dorset |journal=Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History Museum and Archaeological Society |volume=109 |pages=150–153]

Bennett suggested in 1996 that "Germanodactylus" represented adults of "Pterodactylus",cite journal |last=Bennett |first=S. Christopher |authorlink=S. Christopher Bennett |year=1996 |title=Year-classes of pterosaurs from the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany: taxonomic and systematic implications |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=432–444] but this has been rejected by further studies,cite journal |last=Jouve |first=Stephane |year=2004 |title=Description of the skull of a "Ctenochasma" (Pterosauria) from the Late Jurassic of eastern France, with a taxonomic revision of European Tithonian Pterodactyloidea |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=542–554 |doi=10.1671/0272-4634(2004)024 [0542:DOTSOA] 2.0.CO;2 |doilabel=10.1671/0272-4634(2004)024[0542:DOTSOA]2.0.CO;2 ] including his own. Bennett's 2006 reappraisal of "Germanodactylus" found both species to be valid and included within the genus, with "G. cristatus" known from four specimens including two juveniles, and "G. rhamphastinus" from two specimens. The genus differs from other pterosaurs by a combination of characteristics including a sharply pointed jaw tip, 4-5 premaxillary teeth and 8-12 maxillary teeth per side of the upper jaw, robust maxillary teeth that, unlike in "Pterodactylus", are not reduced in size farther from the tip of the jaw, a naso-antorbital fenestra twice the length of the eye socket, and various proportional differences. "G. cristatus" differs from "G. rhampastinus" by having no teeth in the tip of the jaw and fewer teeth (~13 in each side of the upper jaw and ~12 in the lower versus 16 upper and 15 lower on each side for "G. rhamphastinus").

References

External links

* [http://www.pterosaur.co.uk/species/UJP/german/German-crist.htm "Germanodacylus cristatus"] at the Pterosaur Database
* [http://www.pterosaur.co.uk/species/UJP/german/German-rham.htm "Germanodactylus rhamphastinus"] at The Pterosaur Database
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20070106232054/http://www.paleograveyard.com/daitingopterus.html Restoration of "G. rhamphastinus"] at The Grave Yard