Eudimorphodon

Eudimorphodon
Fossil of Eudimorphodon ranzii in the Bergamo Natural History Museum
Temporal occurrence
Upper Triassic ( Norium to Rhaetium )
228 to 201.3 million years
Locations
Europe Greenland
Systematics
Diapsida Archosauria Ornithodira Flugsaurier (Pterosauria) Campylognathoididae Genre : Eudimorphodon
Scientific name
Eudimorphodon
Zambelli , 1973

Eudimorphodon is a genus previously Flugsaurier (Pterosauria) from the time of the Late Triassic ( Norian to Rhaetian ) and one of the oldest so far discovered Flugsaurier. Its fossil remains were found in 1973 by Mario Pandolfi in limestone formations at the foot of the Alps near Cene in the province of Bergamo .

Like all older pterosaurs, Eudimorphodon has a long tail as a primeval characteristic. In addition, his metacarpal is still relatively short.

The wingspan is one meter. At the end of its long bony tail, it possessed a diamond-shaped flap of skin, which is believed to have helped this flying lizard to maneuver in the air. Its jaw, which is only six centimeters long, is covered with 114 clearly heterodontic teeth, some large, single-pointed canines in the front mouth and in the middle of the upper jaw and many small, three-pointed and multi-pointed teeth in the middle and back of the upper and lower jaw. It is believed that it fed on small, pristine bony fish protected by thick ganoid scales . Since this tooth pattern no longer occurs in later pterosaurs, Eudimorphodon cannot be their ancestor, but must belong to a sideline that became extinct at the end of the Triassic.

In 1989 William Amaral discovered a rich fossil site on McKnight Bjerg in east Greenland. It was excavated in 1991 and 1992. Part of the material was a small skeleton of a pterosaur. In 2001, Farish Jenkins, Neil Shubin, Stephen Gatesy, and Kevin Padian named and described it as a new species of eudimorphodon: Eudimorphodon cromptonellus. The specific name honors Professor Alfred Walter Crompton. The Latin suffix ~ ellus, indicating a reduction in size, alluded to the small size of the specimen. The reference to Eudimorphodon was essentially based on the similarity of the tooth shape, in particular on the characteristic multi-cuspid structure with three, four or five points on the crown. In 2003, Alexander Kellner pointed out that other basal pterosaurs also have such teeth. In 2014, Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia found that E. cromptonellus did not have a single trait in common with Eudimorphodon ranzii that was not found in other pterosaurs but had no distinguishable fang-like teeth, pterygoid teeth and striped tooth enamel. In 2015, Kellner named a separate genus Arcticodactylus. The genus name is derived from the Arctic, and Greek δάκτυλος, daktylos, "finger", a common suffix in pterosaur names since Pterodactylus.

species

• Eudimorphodon ranzii
• Eudimorphodon rosenfeldi
• Eudimorphodon cromptonellus (until 2014)

literature

• Peter Wellnhofer : The illustrated encyclopedia of pterosaurs. Crescent Books, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-517-03701-7 .
• Peter Wellnhofer: The great encyclopedia of the pterosaurs. Illustrated natural history of the flying dinosaurs. 100 species. Mosaik-Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-576-10174-8 .

Web links

Commons : Eudimorphodon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eudimorphodon ranzii - description, Dinodata.de. Retrieved April 3, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Eudimorphodon. Retrieved April 3, 2020 . 
3. ^ Cornell University BS: Facts and Figures of Eudimorphodon. Accessed April 3, 2020 (English).