Preondactylus
| Preondactylus | ||||||||||||
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Live reconstruction of Preondactylus apatomerus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Triassic | ||||||||||||
| 216.5 to 203.6 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Preondactylus | ||||||||||||
| Wild , 1983 | ||||||||||||
Preondactylus ( "Preone finger") is a genus of pterosaur (Pterosauria) from the Upper Triassic of Italy.
It is considered a primitive pterosaur with a long tail, relatively long hind legs and short wings. The wingspan of this pterosaur, the size of a dove, was about 45 centimeters. The mouth of Preondactylus is covered with many sharp and pointy teeth. The animals probably ate small fish and insects .
The first fossil remains of Preondactylus were discovered by the fossil collector Nando Buffarini in 1982 in the Preone valley near Udine in the northern Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia in a bituminous , dolomitic limestone of the Alps . In his first scientific description in 1983, Rupert Wild named the genus after this first place of discovery. The slab of stone with the fossil broke into several parts during the recovery, but the finder was able to reassemble it. When the plate was washed, the black bones embedded in a layer of marl only a few millimeters thick were washed away and only the negative impression remained. The impression was filled with silicone rubber and the resulting cast served as the basis for the scientific investigation.
A second fossil was also found in 1984 in the Preone Valley. However, it comes from a stratigraphic level that is 150 to 200 meters below that of the first find. This individual, over 210 million years old, is the oldest known pterosaur. Since the bones of this specimen are tightly compressed, it is believed that they are the ball of a predatory fish .
supporting documents
- David M. Unwin: The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time. PI Press, New York NY 2006, ISBN 0-13-146308-X .
- 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 , pp. 62-67.
