Tapejara

Tapejara (from a Tupi word meaning "the old being") is a genus of Brazilian pterosaur from the Cretaceous Period (Santana Formation, dating to about 108 Ma ago). Tapejara crests consisted of a semicircular crest over the snout, and a bony prong which extended back behind the head.

The type species and only one currently recognized as valid by most researchers, T. wellnhoferi, is the smallest species to have been assigned to Tapejara and does not preserve evidence of soft-tissue crest extensions. The specific name honours German paleontologist Peter Wellnhofer. A second species, originally named Tapejara imperator ("emperor"), is much larger and possessed a crest made up of distinctively long prongs, projecting from the rounded snout crest and the back of the skull, which supported a large, possibly rounded sail-like crest of keratin. A third species, Tapejara navigans ("sailing"), was mid-sized and sported a similar crest to T. imperator, though narrower and more dome-shaped, that lacked the backwards-pointing bony support prong.