In 1994, Dino Frey (National History Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany) and David Martill (University of Portsmouth in Portsmouth, United Kingdom) described a new species of pterosaur that they called "Arthurdactylus conan-doylei." The type specimen of this species is a partially articulated individual lacking cervical vertebrae and skull. It has a sternum-wing span of about 15.1 feet (4.6 meters).
Peasants who make a living digging in the area and selling their finds to traders in Rio de Janeiro discovered the specimen at Shapada Do Araripe in northeastern Brazil. Many of the in-the-round fish fossils that come from Brazil and are sold in the United States come from this region and these or related strata. The limestone nodules that normally encase fossil fishes are also particularly favorable for the preservation of delicate thin-walled pterosaur bones, often in their original three-dimensional form (Maisey 1991). Thus, these fossil deposits have been the source of the fossils for a number of other different pterosaur genera and species as described by Wellnhofer (1991:122-130).
Because the jungle of the Shapada Do Araripe region resembles the mythical South American Jungle in the "Lost World," Dr. Martill and Dr. Frey decided to honor the fact that Conan Doyle was the first to popularize pterodactyls in that book. Thus, they named "Arthurdactylus conan-doylei" after him. The specimen is currently housed by the Museum at Karlsruhe.
Maisey, John G., 1991, Santana Fossils: An Illustrated Atlas. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City, New Jersey.
Wellnhofer, P., 1991, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs. Crescent Books, New York.
Copyright © 1996-2002 Paul V. Heinrich All rights reserved.