Arthurdactylus

• Santana Formation, Brazil

Arthurdactylus conandoylei was a living before 120 million years pterosaur ( Pterosauria ) from the Lower Cretaceous of South America and is the only known species in the genus Arthurdactylus.

The fossil bones of this animal were found in the Crato Formation, a layer of rock in the northeast of Brazil. The Crato Formation is a layer member of the Santana Formation, an important fossil site, which is particularly known for its rich pterosaur fauna.

Arthurdactylus conandoylei one of the largest pterosaurs and, with an estimated wingspan of 4.6 meters, the proportional longest part of all pterosaurs. The only known skeleton is complete except for the skull, neck and sternum.

The species was described in 1994 conan doylei by Eberhard ( "Dino" ) Frey and David M. Martill as Arthurdactylus. This notation was subsequently corrected in 1998 because it did not comply with the rules of the ICZN. The systematic position of the animal is still unclear, he probably belongs within the short-tailed pterosaurs ( Pterodactyloidea ) to the Ornithocheiridae.

The name of the pterosaur is derived from the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who became world famous with stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes. In the appeared in 1912, successful adventure novel " The Lost World " (Original Title: The Lost World ), a classic in the "dinosaur - Fiction ," Doyle leaves among other prehistoric animals first time pterosaurs occur and thus contributes to its popularization. The fictional Handlungsort of the novel, a vast plateau in South America, reminded the editor of the Araripe plateau, at the foot of the fossils were found by A. conandoylei.