Parapsicephalus

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Parapsicephalus
Fossil range: Early Jurassic

Fossil

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Pterosauria
Suborder:	Rhamphorhynchoidea
Family:	Rhamphorhynchidae
Genus:	Parapsicephalus Arthaber, 1919
Species:	P. purdoi (Newton, 1888; originally Scaphognathus)

Binomial name

Parapsicephalus purdoni
von Arthaber, 1919

Parapsicephalus (meaning "beside arch head") was a genus of rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur from the early Toarcian-age Lower Jurassic Alum Shale of Whitby, Yorkshire, England. It is known from a partial skull lacking the snout, but including a detailed cast of the brain. Despite this, it is an obscure genus.

It was collected in the 1880s by Reverend D.W. Purdon, who is honored in the species name,^[1] and first described by E.T. Newton, who named it as a species of Scaphognathus.^[2] It was recognized as a distinct genus only decades later,^[3] although in a recent popular publication it was synonymized with Dorygnathus without comment.^[4] It is considered to be a rhamphorhynchid,^[5] of medium size (estimated wingspan of ~1 m ~[3.3 ft]).^[1]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Wellnhofer, Peter [1991] (1996). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 77-78. ISBN 0-7607-0154-7.
^ Newton, E.T. (1888). On the skull, brain, and auditory organ of a new species of pterosaurian (Scaphognathus purdoni) from the Upper Lias near Whitby, Yorkshire. Philospophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B 179:503-537
^ von Arthaber, G. (1919). Studien uber Flugsaurier auf Grund der Bearbeitung des Wiener exemplars von Dorygnathus banthensis Theod Sp. Denkschriften der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Klasse 97:391-464. [German]
^ Unwin, D.M. (2006). The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time. Pi Press:New York, p. 272. ISBN 0-13-146308-X.
^ Carroll, R.L. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company:New York, 698 pp. ISBN 0716718227.