page_title: Aurorazhdarcho
section_title: Discovery of adult specimen
hierarchical_section_title: Aurorazhdarcho / History / Discovery of adult specimen
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Fossil of Aurorazhdarcho- Took the picture at Natural History Museum, Basel
context_page_description: Aurorazhdarcho is an extinct genus of gallodactylid ctenochasmatoid pterosaur known from the Late Jurassic period of what is now Bavaria, southern Germany.
context_section_description: In 1999, amateur paleontologist Peter Katschmekat uncovered a fossil of a pterosaur in the Blumenberg Quarry, 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) northwest of Eichstätt, in layers of the Solnhofen limestone. The fossil was prepared by Gerd Stübener and acquired by the Swiss Naturhistorisches Museum Basel. Based on the specimen, the type species Aurorazhdarcho primordius was named and described by Eberhard Frey, Christian A. Meyer and Helmut Tischlinger in 2011. The generic name is derived from Latin aurora, "dawn" and Kazakh Azhdarcho, the name of a mythical dragon. The specific name means "primordial" or "the very first" in Latin.
  The holotype of Aurorazhdarcho, NMB Sh 110, was found in the Upper Eichstätt Formation dating to the early Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic, 150 million years ago. It consists of a nearly complete skeleton, three-dimensionally preserved on a single slab with the counterplate having been removed, lacking the skull and neck. However, the head and neck are present as impressions, movement of these elements on the bottom of the lagoon the carcass descended on leaving a natural mould covered by organic remains in the form of calcium phosphate flakes made visible by the UV-photography of Tischlinger. That the head and neck are now absent is explained by the animal being killed by a partially failed attack by a predator, almost ripping off these parts, after which the body quickly sank. Subsequent bloating would then have caused the head to drift away. The individual was probably subadult and, as indicated by the fusion of the ischiopubes in the pelvis, a male as it lacks a wide birth canal.
  In 2013, Bennett compared the holotype specimen of Aurorazhdarcho primordius to the specimens of the species "Pterodactylus" micronyx (named by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1856). He found that some of the supposed distinguishing features of A. primordius, such as length of the metacarpal IV equal to the length of the radius and ulna, or first wing finger phalanx being the longest element in the wing, are in fact also present in the skeletons of the specimens of "P." micronyx; in addition, limb proportions in the holotype specimen of A. primordius matched those of "P." micronyx. Bennett concluded that Aurorazhdarcho primordius and "Pterodactylus" micronyx are in fact conspecific; he retained Aurorazhdarcho as a genus distinct from Pterodactylus, but he considered the specific epithet primordius to be a junior synonym of the epithet micronyx.
  As noted by Bennett, the taxonomy of Aurorazhdarcho micronyx is further complicated by the author's earlier suggestion that "Pterodactylus" micronyx specimens are in fact juveniles of Gnathosaurus subulatus, which if confirmed would make the former a junior synonym of the latter. G. subulatus is only known from the holotype incomplete mandible and the isolated skull; this makes comparison difficult, because skulls are only known in small, juvenile specimens of A. micronyx, while the large specimens, including NMB Sh 110, lack it. Thus, Bennett stated that until a large specimen with an associated skull and skeleton is discovered, which would make it possible to establish or reject the synonymy of Gnathosaurus and Aurorazhdarcho, the genus Aurorazhdarcho should be used to contain the species A. micronyx.
  Additional likely synonyms of P. micronyx are Pterodactylus nettecephaloides and P. redenbacheri. While both of these names are older than A. micronyx, Olshevsky in 1991 considered them nomina oblita ("forgotten names"), and therefore not senior synonyms.
caption: The first known adult in Basel
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