Pterosaur of the Day - Germanodactylus

One of the problems with investigating pterosaurs is that these flying reptiles were so numerous, and so similar looking, that they can be hard to distinguish from one another on the genus (much less the species) level. A case in point is Germanodactylus, which for years was thought to be a species of Pterodactylus, until a more rigorous analysis showed that it deserved its own genus.

As pterosaurs go, Germanodactylus tended toward plain vanilla, except for its prominent (and probably prominently colored) head crest--which was composed of solid bone on the bottom and soft tissue on the top.

Read more about pterosaurs like Germanodactylus: Pterosaurs - The Flying Reptiles

Illustration: Wikimedia Commons