''Altmuehlopterus'' (meaning "Altmühl River wing") is a genus of pterosaur belonging to the Pterodactyloidea. It lived in the Late Jurassic of what is now Germany. It was formerly known as "Daitingopterus" (meaning "
Daiting
Daiting is a municipality in the district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria in Germany.
Archaeopteryx - Daiting Specimen
An eighth, fragmentary specimen of Archaeopteryx was discovered in the late 1980s in the somewhat younger sediments at Daiting. It ...
Wing"), a ''
nomen nudum
In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate descr ...
'', informally coined in 2004.
Discovery and naming
In 1851, Johann Andreas Wagner named a new species of ''Ornithocephalus'' (a now-obsolete name for the genus '' Pterodactylus''), ''Ornithocephalus ramphastinus''. The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
referred to the toucan genus '' Ramphastos'', in view of the large beak-like snout of the pterosaur. In 1859/1860,
Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer
Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer (3 September 1801 – 2 April 1869), known as Hermann von Meyer, was a German palaeontologist. He was awarded the 1858 Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London.
Life
He was born at Frankfurt am Ma ...
corrected the specific name to ''rhamphastinus''. Although this was incorrect by modern standards, the new spelling has become valid by being accepted and used by subsequent authors, under article
ICZN
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the I ...
33.3.1.
The holotype, BSP AS.I.745, was probably found at
Mörnsheim
Mörnsheim, or Moernsheim, is a municipality in the district of Eichstätt in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the river Gailach and the surrounding rocks date back to the Late Jurassic
The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Perio ...
near
Daiting
Daiting is a municipality in the district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria in Germany.
Archaeopteryx - Daiting Specimen
An eighth, fragmentary specimen of Archaeopteryx was discovered in the late 1980s in the somewhat younger sediments at Daiting. It ...
in a layer of the '' Malm Zeta 3'', dating from the
Tithonian
In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 152.1 ± 4 Ma and 145.0 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the K ...
. It consists of a partly articulated skeleton with skull, preserved on a plate and counterplate.
In 1871, Harry Govier Seeley included the specimen in the type material of '' Diopecephalus'', without, however, designating it as the holotype of this genus. For this reason, Peter Wellnhofer felt free to name the specimen as a second species of '' Germanodactylus'' in 1970: ''Germanodactylus rhamphastinus''.Wellnhofer, P., 1970, "Die Pterodactyloidea (Pterosauria) der Oberjura- Plattenkalke Süddeutschlands", ''Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Wissenschaftlichen Klasse'', Abhandlungen 141:133 pp In 2004, Michael Maisch e.a. concluded that it represented a new genus, which they indicated as "Daitingopterus" in a diagram. It remained a ''nomen nudum''.
In 2017, Steven Vidovic and David Martill validly named a separate genus ''Altmuehlopterus''. The generic name combines a reference to the river
Altmühl
The Altmühl (, la, Alchmona, Alcmana, Almonus) s.v. is a river in
, running through
Solnhofen
Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Middle Franconia in the ' of Bavaria in Germany. It is in the Altmühl valley.
The local area is famous in geology and palaeontology for Solnhofen limest ...