Kepodactylus (Redirected from Kepodactylus insperatus)

Kepodactylus
Temporal range: Late Jurassic, Kimmeridgian–Tithonian
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Pterosauria
Suborder: Pterodactyloidea
Family: Ctenochasmatidae
Genus: Kepodactylus
Harris & Carpenter, 1996
Species:
K. insperatus
Binomial name
Kepodactylus insperatus
Harris & Carpenter, 1996

Kepodactylus is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, United States.

In 1992, a team from the Denver Museum of Natural History dug up a specimen of the dinosaur Stegosaurus stenops in Garden Park, Colorado. In the quarry they also found smaller disarticulated bones from other animals, among which were those of a pterosaur new to science.

In 1996, Jerald Harris and Kenneth Carpenter named the new genus. The type species is Kepodactylus insperatus. The genus name is derived from Greek, kepos, "garden", a reference to Garden Park and daktylos, "finger", referring to the typical wing finger of pterosaurs. The specific name means "unhoped-for" in Latin, alluding to the fact that the researchers hoped to find a dinosaur, and did not expect a pterosaur.

The genus is based on the holotype DMNH 21684, consisting of a cervical vertebra, humerus, several finger bones, and a metatarsal. Kepodactylus was similar to Mesadactylus but larger (wingspan around 2.5 m [8.2 ft]), and with additional pneumatic foramina (holes to allow air from air sacks to enter the bones) in the vertebrae and humerus. The describers concluded that the species was a member of the Pterodactyloidea and within this group, using the phylogeny of David Unwin, a member of a clade that is now known as Lophocratia. It was regarded as a potentially valid genus in the most recent review of Morrison pterosaurs.

Classification

The cladogram below shows a phylogenetic analysis published by Longrich, Martill, and Andres in 2018. They recovered Kepodactylus as a basal member of the family Ctenochasmatidae.

Ctenochasmatidae
Ctenochasmatinae

Ctenochasma

Pterodaustrini

Pterodaustro

Beipiaopterus

Gegepterus

Kepodactylus

Moganopterinae

Moganopterus

Feilongus

Ardeadactylus

Elanodactylus

Gnathosaurinae

Huanhepterus

Plataleorhynchus

Gnathosaurus

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-11-20 16:01 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari