#germanodactylid

By Fabrizio De Rossi, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.

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Name: Tendaguripterus recki

Name Meaning: Tendaguru Wing

First Described: 1999

Described By: Unwin & Heinrich

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Pterodactyliformes, Caelidracones, Pterodactyloidea, Archaeopterodactyloidea, Germanodactylidae

Tendaguripterus was a Germanodactylid from the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, living from the Kimmeridgian to Tithonian ages of the Late Jurassic, around 152 million years ago. It is known from a jaw and some teeth, and it probably would have been a fairly small pterosaur, with the skull estimated to be only about 20 centimeters long, indicating that it would have had a wingspan of about 1 meter. It may have eaten shellfish, picking them from lagoons and using sharp teeth to pierce their shells. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendaguripterus

http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/tendaguripterus.html

By Julio Lacerda, on @paleoart, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.

A reminder that we will not be able to do every pterosaur until we reach $240 in donations on our patreon, so please donate even a dollar if you can.

Name: Germanodactylus cristatus, G. rhamphastinus

Name Meaning: German Finger

First Described: 1964

Described By: Yang

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Pterodactyliformes, Caelidracones, Pterodactyloidea, Archaeopterodactyloidea, Germanodactylidae  

Germanodactylus is a Pterodactyloid that gave its name to a small group of them more closely related to Germanodactylus than to other pterosaurs, such as Pterodactylus itself. It is known from the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany, living in the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic, about 145 million years ago. It had a wingspan of about 1 to 1.08 meters, and a very long skull of about 21 centimeters. Germanodactylus had a notable hea crest, with a bony portion on the midline of the skull and soft tissue that doubled the height of the crest itself. This actually indicates that other tissues may have also had soft tissue extension to their crests, though it is not always preserved. 

By Dmitry Bogdanov, CC BY-SA 3.0

Germanodactylus was probably a fish eating pterosaur in its marine environment, with a sharply pointed jaw and quite a few teeth. The genus was originally a wastebasket taxon, however has since been more straightened out with only two species assigned to the genus - though, ironically, both of these species originally belonged to other genera first. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanodactylus

http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/germanodactylus.html