Arthurdactylus fossil map
Where fossils of Arthurdactylus have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 115 million years ago and on today’s map.
Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 115 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →
| Group | Pterosaurs |
|---|---|
| Lived | 119.57–113.2 million years ago (Aptian) |
| Periods | Cretaceous |
| Family | Ornithocheiridae |
| Named by | Frey and Martill 1994 |
| Fossil records | 1 occurrences at 1 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | Brazil |
| Rock formations | Crato |
About Arthurdactylus
Arthurdactylus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of northeastern Brazil. It was a medium-sized pterosaur, with a wingspan of 4.5–4.6 metres (14.8–15.1 ft) and body mass of 15 kg (33 lb).
In 1994 it was named by Eberhard Frey and David Martill in honor of Arthur Conan Doyle, who featured large reptilian pterosaurs in his novel The Lost World, about a professor finding prehistoric animals still alive on a plateau in South-America. They first spelled the species name as Arthurdactylus conan-doylei, thus with a forbidden diacritic sign, and themselves carried out the necessary emendation to conandoylei in 1998. The holotype is SMNK 1133 PAL, a reasonably complete skeleton, lacking only a skull, neck, sternum and some caudal vertebrae. The specimen, adult or nearly so, was preserved on a plate and is slightly crushed. Arthurdactylus had, compared to the torso length of 22 centimetres, relatively long wings and especially long wing fingers, perhaps much more so than any other pterodactyloid. The hind limbs are however, weakly developed.
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Arthurdactylus (revision 1376826239), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q134706.
