Pterodactylus

Pterodactylus is a genus of extinct pterosaurs. It is thought to contain only a single species, Pterodactylus antiquus, which was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile and one of the first prehistoric reptiles ever to be discovered.

A picture published with the record for Pterodactylus.

Steven U. Vidovic, David M. Martill, Matthew Martyniuk , · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
MonofenestrataPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 62 million years on record.

The record covers at least 199.5 Mya to 137.05 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 132.6 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 15 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 15 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 15 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 13 of 15 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 15 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous203–200 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences200–198 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences155–153 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences153–150 Mya — about 1 occurrence150–148 Mya — about 4 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 5 occurrences146–143 Mya — about 2 occurrences143–141 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences138–136 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences136–134 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences199.5 Mya137.05 Mya203 Mya131 Mya

15 occurrences of Pterodactylus on record, most of them in the Late 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

15 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

6 formations

Solnhofener Plattenkalk — 48.91°N, 11.38°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ETendaguru — 9.70°S, 39.23°EAlcobaça — 39.70°N, 8.80°WWadhurst Clay — 50.90°N, 0.51°ESüntel — 51.90°N, 10.48°E

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The named rock units Pterodactylus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pterodactylus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Pterodactylus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

250 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Pterodactylus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

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

10 references

Each of the 15 occurrences 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. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Pterodactylus

Credit
Steven U. Vidovic, David M. Martill, Matthew Martyniuk ,
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pterodactylus daviesii · NHMUK:PAL:PV OR 43074

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itMonofenestrata through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cuvier 1809