Dermodactylus Explained

Dermodactylus (meaning "skin finger", from Greek derma and daktylos, in reference to pterosaur wings being skin membranes supported by the ring fingers) was a genus of pterodactyloid (general term for "short-tailed" pterosaur) pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, United States. It is based on a single partial bone, from the hand.

History and classification

Dermodactylus is based on a single distal right fourth metacarpal found by Samuel Wendell Williston at Como Bluff, Wyoming in 1878; this bone is currently housed in the collections of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut (YPM 2020^[1]). This bone constituted at the time the oldest pterosaur remains found, recognized, and described from North America.^[2] Othniel Charles Marsh first named it as a species of Pterodactylus:^[3] P. montanus, the specific name meaning "from the mountains" in Latin, but soon changed his mind and gave it a new generic name. At the same time he assigned another wing bone, teeth, vertebrae, and a scapulacoracoid to it,^[4] but this material is probably too large to belong to the type individual.^[5]

Its place within the Pterosauria is uncertain, beyond the Pterodactyloidea.^[6] The material it is based on is too meager for further classification (although Carpenter et al.. [2003] note that the shape of the bone's articular end means that it did not belong to an ornithocheirid, a type of short-tailed pterosaur that often had a head crest and/or large teeth),^[7] or for adding additional remains to the genus with any certainty, and so it is now regarded as a dubious pterodactyloid.^{[7] [8] [9] [10]} It was not even mentioned in the most recent major popular work on pterosaurs.^[11]

Paleobiology

Marsh suggested it had a wingspan of 1.5-1.8 meters (5–6 feet),^[4] but this is including the material excluded by Peter Wellnhofer, who estimates the wingspan of the only known individual at 1 meter (3.28 feet).^[2] John Foster estimates its weight at 3.3 kilograms (7.3 pounds). It would probably have been a small aerial carnivore.^[12]

See also

• List of pterosaur genera
• Timeline of pterosaur research

Further reading

• A Second Jurassic Pterosaur from North America. James A. Jensen . John H. Ostrom . Journal of Paleontology . 51 . 4. July 1977. 867–870.

Notes and References

1. YPM=Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, Connecticut.
2. Book: Wellnhofer, Peter . Peter Wellnhofer . The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs . 1991 . 1996 . Barnes and Noble Books . New York . 978-0-7607-0154-6 . 105 .
3. Marsh . Othniel Charles . Othniel Charles Marsh . 1878 . New pterodactyl from the Jurassic of the Rocky Mountains . American Journal of Science . Series 3 . 16 . 93 . 233–234 . 10.2475/ajs.s3-16.93.233 . 1878AmJS...16..233M .
4. Marsh . Othniel Charles . Othniel Charles Marsh . 1881 . Note on American pterodactyls . American Journal of Science . Series 3 . 21 . 124 . 342–343 . 10.2475/ajs.s3-21.124.342 . 1881AmJS...21..342M . free .
5. Book: Wellnhofer, Peter . Peter Wellnhofer . Pterosauria . Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, Teil 19 . 1978 . Gustav Fischer . Stuttgart . 978-3-437-30269-5 . 65 .
6. Book: Wellnhofer, Peter . Peter Wellnhofer . The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs . 1991 . 1996 . Barnes and Noble Books . New York . 978-0-7607-0154-6 . 107 .
7. Book: Carpenter, Kenneth . Kenneth Carpenter . Unwin, David M. . Cloward, Karen . Miles, Clifford A. . Miles, Clark . A new scaphognathine pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic Formation of Wyoming, USA . Buffetaut, Eric . Mazin, Jean- Michel . Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs . limited . 2003 . Geological Society of London, Special Publications, 217. Geological Society of London . London . 45–54 . 978-1-86239-143-7 .
8. Harris . Jerald D. . Carpenter, Kenneth . 1996 . A large pterodactyloid from the Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic) of Garden Park, Colorado . Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte . 8 . 473–484 .
9. Book: Glut, Donald F. . Donald F. Glut . Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia. 4th Supplement . 2006 . McFarland & Company, Inc. . Jefferson, North Carolina . 978-0-7864-2295-1 . Dermodactylus . 598 .
10. Book: King, Lorin R. . Foster, John R. . Scheetz, Rodney D. . New pterosaur specimens from the Morrison Formation and a summary of the Late Jurassic pterosaur record of the Rocky Mountain region. Foster, John R. . Lucas, Spencer G. . Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation . 2006 . New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin . 36 . New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science . Albuquerque, New Mexico . 149–161 .
11. Book: Unwin, David M. . David M. Unwin . The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time . 2006 . Pi Press . New York . 978-0-13-146308-0 . 1–347 .
12. Book: Foster, John R. . Paleoecological Analysis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Rocky Mountain Region, U.S.A. . 2003 . New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 23 . New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science . Albuquerque, New Mexico . 37.