Genus
Valid Extinct

Tupuxuara

Kellner and Campos 1988

Tupuxuara is a genus of thalassodromid pterosaur that lived during the Albian age of the Early Cretaceous, about 112 million years ago. Its remains were found in what is now the Romualdo Formation of the Santana Group in Brazil. Tupuxuara was named in 1988 by paleontologists Alexander Kellner and Diógenes de Almeida Campos. The name Tupuxuara means "familiar spirit" referring to a familiar spirit in the mythology of the Tupi people in Brazil. Two species have been named, T. longicristatus, the type species, and T. leonardii. An additional species has been named in 2009, T. deliradamus. However, the validity of this species has been put into question and it may not even belong to Tupuxuara.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
5
Group
Ptérosaures
Piscivore Volant Marine
Tupuxuara
click to enlarge
Tupuxuara in the American Museum of Natural History. © olekinderhook · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Pterosauria Order
›
Pterodactyloidea Suborder
›
Azhdarchoidea Superfamily
›
Neoazhdarchia Unranked clade
›
Tapejaroidea Superfamily
›
Thalassodromidae Family
›
Tupuxuara Genus
Fossil sites 5 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇧🇷 Brazil
5
Geological formations
Romualdo
5
Temporal distribution
Aptian (121.4–113.2 Ma)
5
Species (3)
Tupuxuara deliradamus 120 Ma
Tupuxuara leonardii 120 Ma
Tupuxuara longicristatus 120 Ma
Images 2
Bibliography
Original description
A. W. A. Kellner and D. d. A. Campos. 1988. Sobre um novo pterossauro com crista sagital da Bacia do Araripe, Cretáceo Inferior do nordeste do Brasil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 60(4):459-469
Bibliography (5)
M. P. Witton. 2009. A new species of Tupuxuara (Thalassodromidae, Azhdarchoidea) from the Lower Cretaceous Santana Formation of Brazil, with a note on the nomenclature of Thalassodromidae. Cretaceous Research 30:1293-1300 DOI ↗
D. M. Martill and M. P. Witton. 2008. Catastrophic failure in a pterosaur skull from the Cretaceous Santana Formation of Brazil. Zitteliana B 28:175-183
D. M. Martill and D. Naish. 2006. Cranial crest development in the azhdarchoid pterosaur Tupuxuara, with a review of the genus and tapejarid monophyly. Palaeontology 49(4):925-941 DOI ↗
A. W. A. Kellner and D. de. A. Campos. 1994. A new species of Tupuxuara (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 66:467-473
A. W. A. Kellner and D. d. A. Campos. 1988. Sobre um novo pterossauro com crista sagital da Bacia do Araripe, Cretáceo Inferior do nordeste do Brasil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 60(4):459-469