Ludodactylus

Ludodactylus was a genus of ornithocheirid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Ceará, Brazil.

The genus was named by Eberhard Frey et al. in 2003. The type species is Ludodactylus sibbicki. The genus name is derived from Latin ludus, "game" and Greek daktylos, "finger". Ludus refers to the fact, long lamented by paleontologists, that many toy pterosaurs combined teeth with a Pteranodon-like head crest, while no such creature was known to exist — however Ludodactylus shows exactly this combination of features. "Dactylus", in reference to the characteristic long wing finger, has been a common element in the names of pterosaurs since the first known was named Pterodactylus. The specific name "sibbicki" is an homage to the paleoartist John Sibbick, who illustrated Peter Wellnhofer's The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs.

Ludodactylus is based on holotype SMNK PAL 3828, a skull missing part of the head crest, that was removed from the plate before the fossil was sold. Unlike other ornithocheirids, it had no premaxillary crest on the snout, but did have a crest at the back of the skull. Frey interpreted the deep mandible as a crest on the lower jaws. Trapped between the rami of the mandible is a yucca leaf; Frey suggested that the animal got it caught in its beak and unsuccessfully tried to dislodge it (the edge of the leaf is frayed), and then possibly died from starvation or a complication of starving. The skull would have been more than 66 cm (26 in) long. The wing span was estimated at four meters.

Frey et al. in 2003 assigned Ludodactylus to the Ornithocheiridae. In 2007 Frey considered it to be a possible junior synonym of Brasileodactylus.