Page "Pterodactylus" Paragraph 29

Numerous species have been assigned to Pterodactylus in the years since its discovery.

In the first half of the nineteenth century any new pterosaur species would be named Pterodactylus, which thus became a typical " waste-basket taxon ".

Even after clearly different forms had later been given their own generic name, new species would be created from the very productive late Jurassic German sites, often based on only slightly different material.