Diopocephalus

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Diopocephalus (von Meyer 1854) was a genus of pterosaur of the family Pterodactylidae from the Lower Tithonian (Upper Jurassic) of the Lithographic Limestone, Bavaria, Germany. The type and only species is D. longicollum ('long head and neck').

Diopocephalus is known from a nearly complete skeleton. It reached a wingspan of 1.45 metres. Even though assigned to the Pterodactylidae, there are features that suggest that it may be related to Ctenochasma.

Like so many pterosaurs, it has had a confusing taxonomic history, being given names by various authorities which identify it with four other genera:

  • Pterodactylus longicollum (von Meyer 1854)
  • Pterodactylus vulturinus (Wagner 1857)
  • Pterodactylus longicollis (Wagner 1858)
  • Pterodactylus suevicus (Fraas 1878)
  • Cycnorhamphus fraasii (Seeley 1891)
  • Pterodactylus frassi (Seeley 1901)
  • Gallodactylus longicollum (Fabre 1974)
  • Ornithocephalus longipes (Olshevsky 1978)
  • Ornithocephalus vulturinus (Olshevsky 1978)


[edit] References

von Meyer, C. E. H. 1854, Letter on various fossils. N. Jb. Miner. Geogn. Geol. Petrefakt. pp. 47–58.

Wagner, J. A. 1857, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Flugsaurier aus den lithographischen Schiefern in Bayern. Gelehrte Anz. k. bayer. Akad. Wiss. (2), 171–181.

Seeley, H. G. 1871, Additional evidence of the structure of the head in ornithosaurs from the Cambridge Upper Greensand; being a supplement to “The Ornithosauria”. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist.(7) 37, 20–36. & pls 2–3.

Seeley, H. G. 1891, The ornithosaurian pelvis. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6) 7, 237–255.


[edit] External links

The Pterosaur Database [1]

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