Name:
Liaodactylus
(Liaoning finger).
Phonetic: Le-ow-dak-ty-lus.
Named By: Chang-Fu Zhou, Ke-Qin Gao, Hongyu Yi,
Jinzhuang Xue, Quanguo Li, & Richard C. Fox - 2017.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea, Ctenochasmatidae.
Species: L. primus (type).
Diet: Filter feeder.
Size: Holotype skull about 13.3 centimetres long.
Known locations: China - Tiaojishan Formation.
Time period: Oxfordian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and jaws.
Liaodactylus
is a genus of pterosaur
that lived in Asia during the late Jurassic.
Liaodactylus is noted for having numerous small
teeth in comb-like
structures that meshed together when the jaws closed. This would have
allowed Liaodactylus to feed by filtering out small
invertebrates from
water and soft sediment.
Further reading
- Earliest filter-feeding
pterosaur from the Jurassic of China and ecological evolution of
Pterodactyloidea. - Royal Society Open Science. 4 (2). -
Chang-Fu Zhou, Ke-Qin Gao, Hongyu Yi, Jinzhuang Xue, Quanguo
Li, & Richard C. Fox - 2017.