Mimodactylus is a
genus of
istiodactyliform
pterosaur that lived in what is now Lebanon during the
Late Cretaceous, 95 million years ago. The only known specimen was discovered in a
limestone quarry near the town of
Hjoula, belonging to the
Sannine Formation. The owner of the quarry allowed the specimen to be
prepared and
scientifically described by an international team of researchers, and when it was eventually sold, the buyer donated it to the
MIM Museum in
Beirut. In 2019, the researchers named the new genus and species
Mimodactylus libanensis; the generic name refers to the MIM Museum, combined with the
Greek word
daktylos for "digit", and the
specific name refers to Lebanon. The well-preserved
holotype specimen is the first complete pterosaur from the
Afro-Arabian continent (which consisted of the then joined
Arabian Peninsula and
Africa), and the third pterosaur fossil known from Lebanon.
The holotype specimen is comparatively small, with a wingspan of 1.32 metres (4.3 ft), and was probably a young individual. Its snout is broad and the cone-shaped teeth are confined to the front half of the jaws. The
tooth crowns are compressed sideways and have a
cingulum (a thickened ridge at the base), and lack sharp carinae (cutting edges). The skeleton is distinctive in that the deltopectoral crest of the
humerus (ridge for attachment of the
deltoid and
pectoral muscles) is rectangular and that the humerus is less than half the length of the wing-finger's second
phalanx bone. The describers of
Mimodactylus classified it in the new
clade
Mimodactylidae along with
Haopterus, this group being part of Istiodactyliformes. The teeth of
Mimodactylus suggest its feeding habits differed from other pterosaurs, possibly it foraged for
decapod
crustaceans from water surfaces. The marine deposits of Hjoula are late
Cenomanian in age and are well-known for fish fossils. Lebanon was submerged in the
Neotethys ocean at the time, but some small islands were exposed. (
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