Name:
Comodactylus
(Como bluff finger).
Phonetic: Co-moe-dak-ty-lus.
Named By: Peter Galton - 1981.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Pterosauria,
Rhamphorhynchoidea.
Species: C. ostromi (type).
Type: Piscivore.
Size: Unknown for certain because of incomplete
fossil material, but it has been estimated to have a wingspan of 2.5
meters, based upon remains of other pterosaurs.
Known locations: USA, Wyoming - Morrison Formation.
Time period: Kimmeridgian to Tithonian of the
Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Single fourth metacarpal.
Not
much can be said about Comodactylus because it is
only known from a
fourth metacarpal, the hyper extended finger that made up the outer
trailing edge of the wing. The prooportions of the bones have at least
indicated that Comodactylus belongs within the
Rhamphorhynchoidea group of pterosaurs,
although if the size estimates are correct, then Comodactylus
would
have been very big for its group.
The
holotype specimen for Comodactylus had been sitting
in museum
storage for over a century until it was re-discovered and its original
arrival harks back to the bone wars of the late nineteenth century.
During this time fossil material was dug at such a fast rate that it
was not possible for the two main antagonists (Othniel Charles Marsh
and Edward Drinker Cope) to examine all of it. Comodactylus
is derived
from the Como Bluff area where the specimen was recovered from. The
species name C. ostromi is in honour of the
palaeontologist John Ostrom.
Further reading
- A rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic of North
America. - Journal of Paleontology 55(5):1117-1122. - P. M. Galton -
1981.