Kingdom Animalia Order Pterosauria Family Dsungaripteridae Higher classification Dsungaripteridae | Phylum Chordata Suborder Pterodactyloidea Scientific name Domeykodactylus ceciliae Rank Species | |
Genus Domeykodactylus
Martill, Frey, Diaz, and Bell, 2000 Similar Pterosaurs, Noripterus, Dsungaripteridae, Tendaguripterus, Kepodactylus | ||
Domeykodactylus was a genus of dsungaripteroid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous-age Quebrada de la Carreta of Antofagasta, Chile.
Contents
Discovery and naming
The genus was named in 2000 by David Martill, Eberhard Frey, Guillermo Chong Diaz and Charles Michael Bell. The type species is Domeykodactylus ceciliae. The genus name is derived from the Cordillera Domeyko and Greek daktylos, "finger" in reference to the wing finger typical of pterosaurs. The specific name honours geologist Cecilia Demargasso of the Universidad Católica del Norte, "who was so kind to us".
Description
Domeykodactylus is based on holotype Departmento de Ciencias Geológicas at the Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta 250973, found in the Sierra da Candeleros. It consists of a partial mandible; a premaxilla, present in the same rock, is referred to it as paratype. The fossil had at first been thought to belong to Pterodaustro. Domeykodactylus had a crest running along the top of the premaxilla. The bone structure of the crest consists of vertical trabeculae, narrow struts; it was this texture that had originally been mistaken for the fine filter teeth of Pterodaustro.
The mandible has a short symphysis. There are sixteen tooth sockets, from which the teeth themselves have been lost, in each dentary. The sockets are narrow, oval and slightly elevated, with a raised margin, above the level of the jaw. The teeth were probably small and towards the back more widely spaced and declining in size.
The skull length has been estimated at thirty centimetres and the wingspan at one metre (3.28 ft).
The describers found Domeykodactylus similar to both the Ctenochasmatidae and Dsungaripteridae in the crest; because of the elevated tooth sockets it was assigned to the latter group. It was the first published example of a dsungapterid in South America, most other members of the family being from Asia.