Dino card No. 0361 of 2,027

Caupedactylus

Say it: KOW-peh-dak-TIE-lus

Name means: “Caupe's finger, after the Tupi goddess of beauty”1

Ate: PlantsFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Caupedactylus was a flying reptile with a big, thin crest on its head. It had no teeth and used its beak to eat fruit. It lived about 110 million years ago in what is now Brazil.1 3

Fun fact: pterosaurs flew over the dinosaurs, but they were their cousins, not dinosaurs themselves.

Lived

120 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Romualdo Formation, Araripe Basin, northeastern Brazil1 3

Food

Plants3 1

Wingspan

3.3 m1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

wings as wide as 2 bicycles in a row

How big was Caupedactylus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Caupedactylus had a wingspan of about 3.3 metres (11 feet), making it the largest known tapejarine pterosaur.1

Its skull was about 46 centimetres long and had a large, rounded crest that was only half a millimetre thick at the top.1

The tip of its snout curved downward, and its upper jaw had a slightly concave lower edge.1

The crest on its snout had grooves that may have held blood vessels, possibly helping with temperature control.2

Its lower jaw had a thick, slightly convex surface at the rear, and when closed it fit tightly against the upper jaw with no gap.1

The holotype specimen (MN 4726-V) is an adult, which is rare for pterosaurs from this formation.1

AI-made picture of Caupedactylus — An AI-made picture of how Caupedactylus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Caupedactylus

?What did Caupedactylus eat?

It ate fruit. Its beak had no teeth, and the Paleobiology Database lists it as a volant frugivore, meaning a flying fruit-eater.3

?How big was Caupedactylus?

Its wingspan was about 3.3 metres, making it the largest known tapejarine pterosaur. Its skull was about 46 centimetres long.1

?When did Caupedactylus live?

It lived about 110 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period (Albian stage).1

?Where was Caupedactylus found?

Its fossils were found in the Romualdo Formation of the Araripe Basin in northeastern Brazil.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Caupedactylus
Named by: Kellner 20133
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Tapejaridae3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 120 to 113 million years (Aptian)3
Rock formations: Crato3
Countries: Brazil3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Caupedactylus was named and described by Alexander Kellner in 2013 based on a partial skeleton found in the Romualdo Formation of Brazil.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether the bones in the front of the palate are part of the palatine bones or the maxillae.1

Where the facts come from

Caupedactylus (en.wikipedia.org)
A new unusual tapejarid (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from the Early Cretaceous Romualdo Formation, Araripe Basin, Brazil (cambridge.org)
Caupedactylus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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