Melkamter pateko

Melkamter is an extinct genus of monofenestratan pterosaurs from the Early Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation of Argentina. The genus contains a single species, M. pateko, known from a partial skull and fragmentary postcranium. Melkamter represents the oldest known monofenestratan pterosaur in the fossil record.

Melkamter pateko

A. E. Fernandes, D. Pol & O. W. M. Rauhut · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MelkamterPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At most 8.2 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 182.9 Mya and 174.7 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Early Jurassic — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 1 occurrence183–183 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences183–182 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences182–182 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences182–182 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences182–182 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences182–181 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences181–181 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences181–181 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences181–180 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences180–180 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences180–180 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences180–179 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences179–179 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences179–179 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences179–178 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences178–178 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences178–178 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences178–178 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences178–177 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences177–177 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences177–177 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences177–176 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences176–176 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences176–176 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences176–175 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences175–175 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences175–175 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences175–175 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences183.4 Mya174.2 Mya

1 occurrence of Melkamter pateko on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Cañadón Asfalto — 43.41°S, 69.23°W

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The named rock units Melkamter pateko has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Melkamter pateko and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Melkamter pateko and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

11 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Melkamter pateko, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Melkamter pateko

Credit
A. E. Fernandes, D. Pol & O. W. M. Rauhut
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Melkamter pateko · MPEF-PV 11530

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMelkamter through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fernandes et al. 2024