Germanodactylus cristatus

Germanodactylus is a genus of germanodactylid pterodactyloid pterosaur from Upper Jurassic-age rocks of Germany, including the Solnhofen Limestone. Its specimens were long thought to pertain to Pterodactylus. The head crest of Germanodactylus is a distinctive feature.

Germanodactylus cristatus

H. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
GermanodactylusPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At most 4.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 149.2 Mya and 145.06 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Jurassic — about 2 of 2 occurrencesLate Jurassic149–149 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences149.7 Mya144.6 Mya

2 occurrences of Germanodactylus cristatus on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Altmühltal — 48.93°N, 11.15°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°E

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The named rock units Germanodactylus cristatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Germanodactylus cristatus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Germanodactylus cristatus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

14 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Germanodactylus cristatus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Germanodactylus cristatus

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Germanodactylus cristatus was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itGermanodactylus through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Wiman 1925)