Dino card No. 0529 of 2,027

Domeykodactylus

Say it: do-MAY-ko-DAK-til-us

Name means: “Domeyko finger, after the Cordillera Domeyko mountain range and the wing finger of pterosaurs”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Domeykodactylus was a flying reptile that lived in what is now Chile during the Early Cretaceous. It had a crest on its head and ate fish, swooping over ancient seas.1 3

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

Lived

143 to 100 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Quebrada la Carreta, Sierra da Candeleros, Chile3 1

Food

Fish3

Wingspan

2 m1

estimated

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tail

How big was Domeykodactylus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Domeykodactylus was first thought to be a different pterosaur called Pterodaustro, but scientists later realized it was a new species.1

Its skull was about 30 centimeters (12 inches) long, about the size of a ruler.1

Domeykodactylus had a crest on top of its snout made of thin bone struts, which gave it a bumpy texture.1

It had 16 tooth sockets in each lower jaw bone, but the teeth themselves were small and have not been found.1

Domeykodactylus was the first pterosaur of its family, the Dsungaripteridae, ever found in South America. Most others lived in Asia.1

Its fossils were found in rocks that are between 143 and 100 million years old, from the Early Cretaceous period.3

AI-made picture of Domeykodactylus — An AI-made picture of how Domeykodactylus 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 Domeykodactylus

?How big was Domeykodactylus?

Its skull was about 30 centimeters (12 inches) long, and its wingspan was about 2 meters (6.6 feet).1

?What did Domeykodactylus eat?

It ate fish, swooping over ancient seas to catch them.3

?Why did Domeykodactylus have a crest?

Scientists are not sure, but the crest was made of thin bone struts and may have been used for display or to help identify its species.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Domeykodactylus
Named by: Martill et al. 20003
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Dsungaripteridae3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 143 to 100 million years (Berriasian / Albian)3
Rock formations: Santa Ana3
Countries: Chile3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Domeykodactylus was named in 2000 by David Martill, Eberhard Frey, Guillermo Chong Diaz and Charles Michael Bell. The fossil was found in the Sierra da Candeleros in Chile and was originally mistaken for Pterodaustro.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly what the crest on Domeykodactylus's head was used for. It might have been for display to attract mates or to recognize others of its kind.1

Where the facts come from

Domeykodactylus (en.wikipedia.org)
Reinterpretation of a Chilean pterosaur and the occurrence of Dsungaripteridae in South America | Geological Magazine | Cambridge Core (cambridge.org)
Domeykodactylus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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