''Nesodactylus'' was a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

rhamphorhynchid Rhamphorhynchidae is a group of early pterosaurs named after ''Rhamphorhynchus'', that lived in the Late Jurassic. The family Rhamphorhynchidae was named in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley.Seeley, H.G. (1870). "The Orithosauria: An Elementary Study o ...

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 ...

from the middle-late Oxfordian ageDe la Fuente, M. S., & Iturralde-Vinent, M. (2001). A new pleurodiran turtle from the Jagua Formation (Oxfordian) of western Cuba. Journal Information, 75(4).

Upper Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

Jagua Formation The Jagua Formation is a Late Jurassic (middle to late Oxfordian (stage), Oxfordian) geologic Formation (geology), formation in the Sierra de los Órganos and Sierra del Rosario mountain ranges in Pinar del Río Province, western Cuba. Plesiosaur ...

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 191,081 (2022), it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños''. History Pinar del Río was ...

, western

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

Discovery and naming

Its remains were collected but not prepared by

Barnum Brown Barnum Brown (February 12, 1873 – February 5, 1963), commonly referred to as Mr. Bones, was an American paleontologist. He discovered the first documented remains of ''Tyrannosaurus'' during a career that made him one of the most famous fossil ...

in 1918, from rocks better known for their fossils of marine life. When seven black chalkstone blocks were prepared from 1966 by

Richard Lund Richard Lund (9 July 1885 – 27 September 1960) was a Swedish film and theatre actor. He made his stage debut at Stora Teatern in Gothenburg in 1904 and later appeared in more than 70 films between 1912 and 1952, making his most important ...

by dissolving the substrate in

acid An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

, this revealed the remains of a pterosaur. Ned Colbert described and named the genus in 1969. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

is ''Nesodactylus hesperius''. The genus name is derived from Greek ''nesos'', "island" and ''daktylos'', "finger", a reference to the island of Cuba and the typical wing finger of pterosaurs. 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 ...

means "western", from Greek ''hesperios''. The genus is based on

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 ...

AMNH 2000, a partial skeleton including a skull fragment, numerous

vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

e from all parts of the spine and

tail The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...

, zygapophyses (interpreted by Colbert as ossified

tendons A tendon or sinew is a tough band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It sends the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system, while withstanding tension. Tendons, like ligaments, are made of ...

) on the tail, the

pectoral girdle The shoulder girdle or pectoral girdle is the set of bones in the appendicular skeleton which connects to the arm on each side. In humans, it consists of the clavicle and scapula; in those species with three bones in the shoulder, it consists o ...

and a very deeply keeled

sternum The sternum (: sternums or sterna) or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major bl ...

, arms and partial hands, part of the

pelvis The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an Anatomy, anatomical Trunk (anatomy), trunk, between the human abdomen, abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also c ...

, parts of both

femora The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The top of the femur fits in ...

, partial

metatarsal The metatarsal bones or metatarsus (: metatarsi) are a group of five long bones in the midfoot, located between the tarsal bones (which form the heel and the ankle) and the phalanges ( toes). Lacking individual names, the metatarsal bones are ...

s, and ribs. The specimen was disarticulated but associated and not very compressed; during the preparation from the

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

with acid, the bones were not completely removed. In 1977 James A. Jensen and

John Ostrom John Harold Ostrom (February 18, 1928 – July 16, 2005) was an American paleontologist who revolutionized the modern understanding of dinosaurs. Ostrom's work inspired what his pupil Robert T. Bakker has termed a " dinosaur renaissance". Begin ...

by mistake referred to it as ''Nesodon'' (1977).

Description

Colbert found ''Nesodactylus'' to have had longer wings and more robust limbs and longer legs than related ''

Rhamphorhynchus ''Rhamphorhynchus'' (, from Ancient Greek ''rhamphos'' meaning "beak" and ''rhynchus'' meaning "snout") is a genus of long-tailed pterosaurs in the Jurassic period. Less specialized than contemporary, short-tailed pterodactyloid pterosaurs such ...

'', although of a similar size and overall anatomy.

Classification

''Nesodactylus'' is classified as a

. Although there is little overlapping material with contemporaneous '' Cacibupteryx'', the two are clearly different based on details of the

elbow The elbow is the region between the upper arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and t ...

and quadrate. At least one recent review suggests it was a rhamphorhynchine, while another does not classify it.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q383964 Rhamphorhynchidae Late Jurassic pterosaurs of North America Oxfordian life Jurassic Cuba Fossils of Cuba Fossil taxa described in 1969 Taxa named by Edwin H. Colbert Pterosaur genera

Discovery and naming

Description

Classification

See also

References