''Altmuehlopterus'' (meaning "Altmühl River wing") is a genus of

pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

belonging to the

Pterodactyloidea Pterodactyloidea ( ; derived from the Greek words ''πτερόν'' (''pterón'', for usual ''ptéryx'') "wing", and ''δάκτυλος'' (''dáktylos'') "finger") is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs ("wing lizards"), and contai ...

. It lived in the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

of what is now

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was formerly known as "Daitingopterus" (meaning "

Daiting Daiting is a municipality in the district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria in Germany. Archaeopteryx - Daiting Specimen An eighth, fragmentary specimen of Archaeopteryx was discovered in the late 1980s in the somewhat younger sediments at Daiting. It ...

Wing"), a ''

nomen nudum In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published ...

'', informally coined in 2004.

Discovery and naming

In 1851,

Johann Andreas Wagner Johann Andreas Wagner (21 March 1797 – 17 December 1861) was a German palaeontologist, zoologist and archaeologist who wrote several important works on palaeontology. He was also a pioneer of biogeographical theory. Career Wagner was born ...

named a new species of ''Ornithocephalus'' (a now-obsolete name for the genus ''

Pterodactylus ''Pterodactylus'' (from ) is a genus of extinct pterosaurs. It is thought to contain only a single species, ''Pterodactylus antiquus'', which was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile and one of the first prehis ...

''), ''Ornithocephalus ramphastinus''. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

referred to the

toucan Toucans (, ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are most closely related to the Semnornis, Toucan barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful Beak, bills. The family includes five genus, genera and over ...

genus ''

Ramphastos The ''Ramphastos'' genus, also known as toucans, is a genus of brightly colored, tropical birds that are found throughout Central and South America from Southern Mexico to the southern cone of the South American continent. Toucans are typically c ...

'', in view of the large beak-like snout of the pterosaur. In 1859/1860,

Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer (3 September 1801 – 2 April 1869), known as Hermann von Meyer, was a German palaeontologist. He was awarded the 1858 Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. Life He was born in Frankfurt am ...

corrected the specific name to ''rhamphastinus''. Although this was incorrect by modern standards, the new spelling has become valid by being accepted and used by subsequent authors, under article

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its formal author, t ...

33.3.1. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, BSP AS.I.745, was probably found at

Mörnsheim Mörnsheim, or Moernsheim, is a municipality in the district of Eichstätt in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the river Gailach and the surrounding rocks date back to the Late Jurassic (Tithonian In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is t ...

near

in a layer of the '' Malm Zeta 3'', dating from the

Tithonian In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age (geology), age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 149.2 ±0.7 annum, Ma and 143.1 ±0.6 (mi ...

. It consists of a partly articulated skeleton with skull, preserved on a plate and counterplate. In 1871,

Harry Govier Seeley Harry Govier Seeley (18 February 1839 – 8 January 1909) was a British paleontologist. Early life Seeley was born in London on 18 February 1839, the second son of Richard Hovill Seeley, a goldsmith, and his second wife Mary Govier. When his fa ...

included the specimen in the type material of ''

Diopecephalus ''Diopecephalus'' is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Lower Tithonian (Upper Jurassic) of the Lithographic Limestone, Bavaria, Germany. The type and only species is ''D. kochi'', although the name has been applied to '' Pterodactylus ...

'', without, however, designating it as the holotype of this genus. For this reason,

Peter Wellnhofer Peter Wellnhofer (born Munich, 1936) is a German paleontologist at the Bayerische Staatssammlung fur Paläontologie in Munich. He is best known for his work on the various fossil specimens of ''Archaeopteryx'' or "Urvogel", the first known bird. ...

felt free to name the specimen as a second species of ''

Germanodactylus ''Germanodactylus'' ("German finger") is a genus of germanodactylid pterodactyloidea, pterodactyloid pterosaur from Upper Jurassic-age rocks of Germany, including the Solnhofen Limestone. Its specimens were long thought to pertain to ''Pterodacty ...

'' in 1970: ''Germanodactylus rhamphastinus''.Wellnhofer, P., 1970, "Die Pterodactyloidea (Pterosauria) der Oberjura- Plattenkalke Süddeutschlands", ''Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Wissenschaftlichen Klasse'', Abhandlungen 141:133 pp In 2004, Michael Maisch e.a. concluded that it represented a new genus, which they indicated as "Daitingopterus" in a diagram. It remained a ''nomen nudum''. In 2017, Steven Vidovic and David Martill validly named a separate genus ''Altmuehlopterus''. The generic name combines a reference to the river

Altmühl The Altmühl (, )
s.v. is a river in

, running through

Solnhofen Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Middle Franconia in the ' of Bavaria in Germany. It is in the Altmühl valley. The local area is famous in geology and palaeontology for Solnhofen lime ...

, with a Latinised Greek ''pteron'', "wing".

References

External links

Restoration of "Daitingopterus"
at The Grave Yard {{taxonbar, from=Q3501878 Pterodactyloidea Late Jurassic pterosaurs of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2017 Taxa named by Johann Andreas Wagner

Discovery and naming

See also

References

External links