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''Kepodactylus'' is an extinct genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, USA. In 1992, a team from the Denver Museum of Natural History dug up a specimen of the dinosaur ''Stegosaurus stenops'' in Garden Park, Colorado. In the quarry they also found smaller disarticulated bones from other animals, among which were those of a pterosaur new to science. In 1996, Jerald Harris and Kenneth Carpenter named the new genus. The type species is ''Kepodactylus insperatus''. The genus name is derived from Greek, ''kepos'', "garden", a reference to Garden Park and ''daktylos'', "finger", referring to the typical wing finger of pterosaurs. The specific name means "unhoped-for" in Latin, alluding to the fact that the researchers hoped to find a dinosaur, and did not expect a pterosaur. The genus is based on the holotype DMNH 21684, consisting of a cervical vertebra, humerus, several finger bones, and a metatarsal. ''Kepodactylus'' was similar to ''Mesadactylus'' but larger (wingspan around 2.5 m (ft )), and with additional pneumatic foramina (holes to allow air from air sacks to enter the bones) in the vertebrae and humerus. The describers concluded that the species was a member of the Pterodactyloidea and within this group, using the phylogeny of David Unwin, a member of a clade that is now known as Lophocratia.〔Harris, J.D., and Carpenter, K. (1996). A large pterodactyloid from the Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic) of Garden Park, Colorado. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte'' 1996(8):473-484.〕 It was regarded as a potentially valid genus in the most recent review of Morrison pterosaurs.〔King, L.R., Foster, J.R., and Scheetz, R.D. (2006). New pterosaur specimens from the Morrison Formation and a summary of the Late Jurassic pterosaur record of the Rocky Mountain region. In: Foster, J.R., and Lucas, S.G. (eds.). ''Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Morrison Formation''. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36:149-161. ISSN 1524-4156. 〕 Unwin considered it a basal member of the Dsungaripteroidea ''sensu'' Unwin. ==See also== * List of pterosaurs 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kepodactylus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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