Cearadactylus
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| Cearadactylus Fossil range: mid-Cretaceous |
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Cearadactylus (meaning "Ceara finger") was a large, mid-Cretaceous (Aptian) pterosaur. It's wingspan is estimated to have been around 4 to 5.5 metres (13 to 18 feet), with a weight of perhaps 15 kilograms.[citation needed] Its kinked upper jaw and its interlocking teeth suggest a piscivourous diet, allowing the animal to keep hold of slippery fish.
The type species is Cearadactylus atrox, described and named by Leonardi and Borgomanero in 1985. It was discovered on the Araripe plateau (Santana Formation) in northeastern Brazil and is known from a single skull.[1]
[edit] In popular culture
It was in the original Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton. In The Land Before Time VII there is an sinister Cearadactylus named Sierra.
[edit] References
- ^ Leonardi, G. & Borgomanero, G. (1985). "Cearadactylus atrox nov. gen., nov. sp.: novo Pterosauria (Pterodactyloidea) da Chapada do Araripe, Ceara, Brasil." Resumos dos communicaçoes VIII Congresso bras. de Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 27: 75–80.
- Unwin, D.M. (2002). "On the systematic relationships of Cearadactylus atrox, an enigmatic Early Cretaceous pterosaur from the Santana Formation of Brazil." Mitteilungen Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Geowissenschaftlichen Reihe, 5: 239-263.
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