Facts about Pterodactyl
Pterosaurs (from the Greek "???????????," meaning winged lizards), often referred to as pterodactyls (from the Greek "?????????????," meaning "winged finger"), were flying reptiles of the taxonomic group Pterosauria.
Pterosaurs (generally referenced by the generic term "pterodactyls") appear in a wide variety of fictional and non-fictional works.
Nonetheless, the name "pterodactyl" continued to be popularly applied to all members of this first specimen's order.
Fossils of the rhamphorhynchoid Sordes, the anurognathid Jeholopterus, and a pterodactyloid from the Santana Formation demonstrate that the wing membrane did attach to the hindlimbs, at least in some species.
The name "Ptero-dactyle" was first coined by Georges Cuvier in 1809 for a specimen recovered in Germany; however, due to the standardization of scientific names, the official name for this species became Pterodactylus.