| Tapejara | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| General information | |||
| Universe | Real Life | ||
| Aliases | The Old Being | ||
| Classification | Tapejara wellnhoferi | ||
| Species type | Tapejarid | ||
| Homeworld | Earth | ||
| Environment | Brazil | ||
| Intelligence | Non-sapient | ||
| Biochemistry | Carbon-based lifeform | ||
| Biological information | |||
| Reproduction | Sexual; Lays leathery eggs | ||
| Locomotion | Powered flight | ||
| Feeding behavior | Piscivorous (presumed) | ||
| Prey | Fish | ||
| Lineage information | |||
| Related species | Tapejara imperator Tapejara navigans | ||
| Cultural information | |||
| Alignment | Neutral | ||
| Organization | Flocks | ||
| Sociocultral characteristics | |||
| Scientific taxonomy | |||
| Planet | Earth | ||
| Domain | Eukaryota | ||
| Kingdom | Animalia | ||
| Subkingdom | Eumetazoa | ||
| Infrakingdom | Bilateria | ||
| Superphylum | Deuterostomia | ||
| Phylum | Chordata | ||
| Subphylum | Vertebrata | ||
| Infraphylum | Gnathostomata | ||
| Superclass | Tetrapoda | ||
| Class | Reptiles | ||
| Subclass | Archosauria | ||
| Infraclass | Avemetatarsalia | ||
| Superorder | Pterosauromorpha | ||
| Order | Pterosauria | ||
| Suborder | Ornithocheiroidea | ||
| Infraorder | Azhdarchoidea | ||
| Family | Tapejaridae | ||
| Subfamily | Tapejarinae | ||
| Genus | Tapejara | ||
| Species | wellnhoferi | ||
| Other information | |||
| Status | Extinct | ||
Tapejara (from a Tupi word meaning "the old being") are a genus of Brazilian pterosaurs with a set of crests: A semicircular one over the snout and a bony prong extending behind the head. They lived during the Cretaceous Period, around 108 million years ago (found in the Santana Formation). Comparisons done between the scleral rings of both the Tapejara and modern birds and reptiles suggests that they may have been cathemeral—active throughout the day for short intervals.
Only one species of Tapejara are currently known: Tapejara wellnhoferi; however, both Tupandactylus imperator and Tupandactylus navigans were also formerly classified as Tapejara.
Species[]
Tapejara wellnhoferi is the smallest of the three species once referred to as Tapejara, but known fossils have failed to preserve the soft-tissue crest extensions.
The first of the erroneous species, originally known as Tapejara imperator (meaning "emperor") however was much larger and was found to possess a crest made up of distinctively long prongs, projecting from the rounded snout crest and extending back behind the skull to support a large, potentially rounded sail-like crest made up of keratin.
The second of the erroneous species, originally known as Tapejara navigans (meaning "sailing") was instead a medium size between the other two species and sported a crest similar to its relative T. imperator, yet was found to be narrower and more dome in shape, as well as lacking the backwards-pointing bony support prong.
However, it was eventually decided that imperator and navigans were too different from wellnhoferi to properly be considered the same genus, and were therefore moved to the new genus, Tupandactylus (also known by the synonym Ingridia).