''Ardeadactylus'' (from ''Ardea'' – meaning "

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychu ...

", and also a name of a genus of herons – and ''dactylus'', meaning "finger") is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of ctenochasmatoid

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the Order (biology), order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cre ...

known from the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the ...

Solnhofen limestone of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

, southern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. It contains a single species, ''Ardeadactylus longicollum'', which was originally thought to be a species of ''

Pterodactylus ''Pterodactylus'' (from Greek () meaning 'winged finger') is an extinct genus of 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 rept ...

'', as ''P. longicollum''.

History

Only two specimens of ''Ardeadactylus'' are known to exist currently: SMNS 56603 (earlier SMNS 5802) found in 1874, a specimen from

Nusplingen Nusplingen is a municipality of the Zollernalb district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. History In 1803, Nusplingen became a possession of the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who traded the town in 1813 to the Kingdom of Württemberg ...

initially thought to belong to the species ''

Pterodactylus suevicus ''Cycnorhamphus'' (meaning "swan beak") is a genus of Gallodactylidae, gallodactylid ctenochasmatoidea, ctenochasmatoid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic period of France and Germany, about 152 million years ago. It is probably synonymous with the ...

'' (currently ''Cycnorhamphus''), and the

neotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...

of the species, JME-SOS 2428, a specimen held at

Jura Museum The Jura Museum located in Willibaldsburg castle in the town of Eichstätt, Germany, is a natural history museum that has an extensive exhibit of Jurassic fossils from the quarries of Solnhofen and surroundings, including marine reptiles, pterosaur ...

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dioce ...

. Other known specimens, including the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

designated by

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 at Frankfurt am M ...

when he named the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

''Pterodactylus longicollum'' in 1854,Meyer, C.E.H. von, 1854, "Mittheilungen an Professor Bronn: Anthracotherium Dalmatinum vom ''Monte Promina'' u.a. A.; Chelydra Decheni aus Braunkohle des ''Siebengebirges''; Wirbelthier-Reste aus dem Basalttuff-Konglomerat zu ''Glimbach'' an der ''Rabenau''; angebliches Vorkommen von Agnotherium antiquum und Hyaena spelaea; fossile Reste im lithographischen Schiefer von ''Nusplingen'' bei ''Spaichingen''; Eryon Schuberti; Litogaster; Pemphix; Pterodactylus longicollum n. sp. in ''Solenhofener'' Schiefer; Acrosaurus Frischmanni von da; Reptilien und Cancer-Arten im ''Kressenberger'' Nummuliten-Gestein", ''Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Petrefaktenkunde'' 1854: 47–58 were lost during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The original holotype, consisting of the skull, neck and anterior torso, had been found near Eichstätt in 1853 and was that year acquired for the ''Herzoglich Leuchtenbergische Naturalien-Kabinett'' by Professor

Ludwig Frischmann Ludwig may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Ludwig (surname), including a list of people * Ludwig Ahgren, or simply Ludwig, American YouTube live streamer and c ...

. Its destruction motivated

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. W ...

to assign a neotype in 1970.Wellnhofer, P., 1970, "Die Pterodactyloidea (Pterosauria) der Oberjura-Plattenkalke Süddeutschlands", ''Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Wissenschaftlichen Klasse, Abhandlungen'' 141: 1–133

Description

''Ardeadactylus'' is suspected to be a

–like, long–necked long–legged piscivore. It was similar to ''Pterodactylus antiquus'' in its general body form, but seems to have been larger. Bennett (2013) estimated the wingspan of the neotype specimen to be ; the referred specimen from the Jura Museum is more or less 10% larger. ''A. longicollum'' had fewer, fifteen per jaw, and relatively larger teeth than ''P. antiquus'', possibly indicating that it preyed on larger fish than ''Pterodactylus''.

Classification

In 2017, a

phylogenetic analysis In biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that pro ...

by Steven Vidovic and David Martill found ''Ardeadactylus'' within the family

Aurorazhdarchidae Ctenochasmatoidea is a group of early pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Their remains are usually found in what were once coastal or lake environments. They generally had long wings, long necks, and highly specialized teeth. Evol ...

, sister taxon to ''

Aurorazhdarcho ''Aurorazhdarcho'' is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatoid pterosaur known from the Late Jurassic period (early Tithonian stage) of what is now Bavaria, southern Germany. History First discovery A specimen, originally classified as ''Pteroda ...

''. Their

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

is shown below: In 2018 however, Nicholas Longrich and colleagues had recovered a different set of relationships for ctenochasmatoids. In their analysis, ''Ardeadactylus'' was recovered within the

Ctenochasmatidae Ctenochasmatidae is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. They are characterized by their distinctive teeth, which are thought to have been used for filter-feeding. Ctenochasmatids lived from the Late Jurassic to the Early C ...

instead. Their cladogram is shown below.

References

{{Portal bar, Paleontology, Germany Late Jurassic pterosaurs of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2013 Solnhofen fauna Kimmeridgian life Tithonian life Ctenochasmatoids

History

Description

Classification

See also

References