Tupandactylus

Tupandactylus (meaning "Tupâ or Tupan finger", in reference to a personification of the Tupi supreme deity) is a genus of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. It is known from two species, T. imperator and T. navigans, though it has been suggested that there is only a single, highly sexually dimorphic species (which would then be T. imperator). T. imperator was described in 1997 by D. A. Campos and Alexander W. A. Kellner, who assigned it to Tapejara. Six years later, T. navigans was named and also assigned to Tapejara. In 2007, two efforts to reallocate both species to a new genus were made, and ultimately the name Tupandactylus came into use.

The larger Tupandactylus species, T. imperator, has an estimated wingspan of 3–4 m (9.8–13.1 ft) and may have stood 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall when measured to the tip of its crest, whereas the smaller T. navigans had a wingspan of about 2.7 m (8.9 ft). Like other tapejarids, Tupandactylus had a large head crest, formed by keratinous fibres and supported by a dorsal extension of the rostrum and a rearward extension of the parietal bone. In T. imperator, the crest was large and rounded, whereas in T. navigans, it was tall and vertical. An additional crest was formed by a projection at the front of the lower jaw. The anatomy of Tupandactylus was standard for a tapejarid, with a large opening formed from the combination of the nasal cavity and the antorbital fenestra, and an eye socket set fairly low in the skull.