Dino card No. 1749 of 2,027

Tapejara

Say it: tap-eh-JAR-ah

Name means: “lord of the path”1

Ate: PlantsFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Tapejara was a small pterosaur that flew over Brazil about 112 million years ago. It had a big crest on its head and ate fruit like a flying parrot.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

Brazil (Ceará state, Romualdo Formation)3 1

Food

Plants3

Length

0.5 to 0.7 m2

body length (beak to tail), estimate

Wingspan

1.23 to 1.3 m1

Top speed

about 40 km/h (25 mph)

Flying, estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 bananas end to end

How big was Tapejara compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast was it?

A person walking about 5 km/h (3 mph)

A kid on a bike about 22 km/h (14 mph)

Tapejara about 40 km/h (25 mph)

A galloping horse about 65 km/h (40 mph)

A cheetah about 100 km/h (62 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

Tapejara had a big crest on its snout that was semicircular, and a bony prong sticking out behind its head.1

Its wingspan was only about 1.23 to 1.3 meters (4 to 4.3 feet), making it one of the smaller pterosaurs.1

Tapejara lived during the Aptian to Albian stages of the Cretaceous, about 127 to 112 million years ago.1

The name Tapejara comes from the Tupi language and means 'lord of the path'.1

Tapejara was toothless, so it probably used its beak to pluck and eat fruit.3 1

Scientists think Tapejara was cathemeral, meaning it was active at short intervals throughout the day and night.1

AI-made picture of Tapejara — An AI-made picture of how Tapejara 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.

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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Tapejara was a dinosaur.

Truth: Tapejara was a pterosaur, a flying reptile, not a dinosaur.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Tapejara
Named by: Kellner 19893
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Tapejaridae3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 120 to 113 million years (Aptian)3
Rock formations: Romualdo3
Countries: Brazil3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Tapejara was named by Alexander Kellner in 1989 based on a partial skull found in Brazil. The species name wellnhoferi honors German paleontologist Peter Wellnhofer.1 3
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether some larger species once called Tapejara imperator and Tapejara navigans should be in their own genus, Tupandactylus.1

Where the facts come from

Tapejara wellnhoferi (en.wikipedia.org)
Tapejara — size, diet & habitat | DinoLifePedia (dinolifepedia.com)
Tapejara 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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