Nesodactylus hesperius

This pterosaurs full name means "Island finger of the west".

The chunk of limestone that Nesodactylus was found in  was collected in Cuba over 50 years ago. But the actual animal was not discovered until the1960's when the limestone was being cleaned to reveal what it contained

The skeleton was in disarray and was incomplete. Most of the axial skeleton ( spine and ribs) and some of the arm bones were there, and these  showed characteristics of the Jurassic pterosaur group Dimorphodontidae. Other features of this group are large skulls, long legs with tightly appressed  metatarsals ( foot bones above the toes) and large wing claws, though none of these elements were preserved in Nesodactylus.

On the restoration shown here I have played it safe and painted the missing physical features in typical Dimorphodont dimensions. Since the skull is unknown I went with something pretty much along the lines of the species Dimorphodon, for which the group is named.Then why not just call it a painting of Dimorphodon?  well the long torso and deep keel (  chest ) illustrated here are features of the preserved skeletal parts of  Nesodactylus, not Dimorphodon, which had a very compact body by comparison.