| Arthurdactylus | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Family: | †Ornithocheiridae |
| Genus: | †Arthurdactylus Frey and Martill, 1994 |
| Species: | †A. conandoylei |
| Binomial name | |
| †Arthurdactylus conandoylei Frey and Martill, 1994 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Arthurdactylus is agenus ofpterodactyloidpterosaur from theEarly CretaceousCrato Formation of northeastern Brazil. It was a medium-sized pterosaur, with a wingspan of 4.5–4.6 metres (14.8–15.1 ft) and body mass of 15 kg (33 lb).[1][2][3]
In 1994 it was named byEberhard Frey andDavid Martill in honor ofArthur Conan Doyle, who featured large reptilian pterosaurs in his novelThe Lost World, about a professor finding prehistoric animals still alive on a plateau in South-America. They first spelled the species name asArthurdactylus conan-doylei, thus with a forbidden diacritic sign,[4] and themselves carried out the necessary emendation toconandoylei in 1998.[5] Theholotype isSMNK 1132 PAL, a reasonably complete skeleton, lacking only a skull, neck, sternum and some caudalvertebrae. The specimen, adult or nearly so, was preserved on a plate and is slightly crushed.Arthurdactylus had, compared to the torso length of 22 centimetres, relatively long wings and especially long wing fingers, perhaps much more so than any other pterodactyloid. The hind limbs are however, weakly developed.
The describers assignedArthurdactylus to theOrnithocheiridae. According to BrazilianpaleontologistAlexander Kellner, who uses this concept in a different sense,Arthurdactylus can be best indicated as closely related to theAnhangueridae[6]
