Mimodactylus libanensis

Mimodactylus is a genus of istiodactyliform pterosaur that lived in what is now Lebanon during the Late Cretaceous, 95 million years ago. The only known specimen was discovered in a limestone quarry near the town of Hjoula, belonging to the Sannine Formation. The owner of the quarry allowed the specimen to be prepared and scientifically described by an international team of researchers. When it was eventually sold, the buyer donated it to the MIM Museum in Beirut. In 2019, the researchers named the new genus and species Mimodactylus libanensis; the generic name refers to the MIM Museum, combined with the Greek word daktylos for "digit", and the specific name refers to Lebanon. The well-preserved holotype specimen is the first complete pterosaur from the Afro-Arabian continent, and the third pterosaur fossil known from Lebanon.

Mimodactylus libanensis

Special thanks to Hugo Salais-López (Metazoa Studio) for the outlines used in the figures. Published by Alexander W.… · CC BY 4.0 · 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
MimodactylusPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At most 6.6 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 100.5 Mya and 93.9 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 1 occurrenceLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceLate Cretaceous101–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101 Mya93.4 Mya

1 occurrence of Mimodactylus libanensis on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

1 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

1 formation

Sannine Limestone — 34.13°N, 35.75°E

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

Mimodactylus libanensis and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Mimodactylus libanensis and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1 taxon

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Mimodactylus libanensis, 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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Mimodactylus libanensis

Credit
Special thanks to Hugo Salais-López (Metazoa Studio) for the outlines used in the figures. Published by Alexander W.…
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Mimodactylus libanensis was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access 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 itMimodactylus through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kellner et al. 2019