Home › Jurassic World Dino Trackers › Tupandactylus Danger Pack
Danger Pack Figure Guide
Tupandactylus Danger Pack
Tupandactylus joined Jurassic World Dino Trackers in Danger Pack wave 2, alongside Piatnitzkysaurus and Xuanhanosaurus. It is a flying reptile from Brazil with one of the biggest head crests of any animal ever, a towering sail far taller than its skull. Mattel’s figure gives it a caramel body, a coral and grey crest and posable wings. Here is what it looks like, the 2022 discovery that made it famous, and how to unlock it in the Jurassic World Play App.
🪽 Flying reptile⛵ Giant sail crest🔋 No batteries🧬 DNA scan code
Headline: Pterosaurs Had Coloured Feathers
In 2022, a single Tupandactylus fossil settled one of the longest arguments in palaeontology.
The study was published in Nature. It suggests that feathers, and colourful ones at that, may go all the way back to the shared ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
What Is Danger Pack?
Danger Pack is the smaller, battery-free assortment of Mattel’s Dino Trackers line, built around animals that lived, hunted or moved in groups. The figures have movable joints and a hidden tracking code for the app, but no sounds or motorised attacks. Wave 2 brought Tupandactylus, Piatnitzkysaurus and Xuanhanosaurus.
Danger Pack has continued in later Jurassic World lines, and it is the easiest way to build a big Dino Trackers collection on a budget.
Paint and Colours
All the colour goes into the crest. The body, neck and legs are a warm caramel tan, and the wing membranes are slate grey. The huge crest is coral red in the middle, speckled with grey and edged with a grey rim, so it really looks like a display sail. A small pink patch around the yellow eye and a grey beak finish the face.
Sculpt and Detail
The crest
The crest rises high above and behind the head like a sail, much bigger than the head itself, with fine texture radiating across it. On the real animal most of the crest was soft tissue supported by thin bony struts, so it was probably light and used for display rather than fighting.
Beak, wings and body
The short, deep beak is toothless, just like the real Tupandactylus. The wings are folded membranes stretched from a long finger, with small clawed fingers at the wrist, and the slim body ends in short, clawed legs.
Named after a god
Action Features and Articulation
✓ Movable wings✓ Hidden tracking code✓ No batteries needed✗ No sound or attack motion
Like every Danger Pack figure, Tupandactylus keeps things simple: movable joints for posing and play, no electronics, and a tracking code hidden on the figure for the app. The big crest makes it one of the most eye-catching figures in the whole range.
Size and Specs
Sold in the HLN49 Danger Pack assortment, for ages 4 and up. It pairs nicely with the Danger Pack Ornithocheirus for a flying reptile display, one with a crest on its beak and one with a crest on its head.
Is It Worth Buying?
Tupandactylus is a great pick for kids who love unusual creatures and for collectors who want something different from the usual Pteranodon. The giant crest is a real showpiece, the colours are bold, and it needs no batteries. Its real-life feather discovery makes it a fun one to talk about too.
It is mostly found second hand now.
What we like
- Spectacular sail-like crest
- Toothless beak, like the real animal
- Bold coral and grey colours
- No batteries needed
Good to know
- No feathers on the figure
- No sound or attack motion
- Small size
About Tupandactylus
Tupandactylus imperator lived about 115 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now Ceará in north-eastern Brazil. Its fossils come from the Crato Formation, an ancient lagoon whose fine limestone preserves soft tissue in remarkable detail, which is why the outline of its crest survived.
It was first described in 1997 as a species of Tapejara and later given its own genus. It belongs to the tapejarids, a family of toothless pterosaurs with short, deep beaks. Its wingspan was probably around 3 to 5 m, and its crest could stand several times taller than the skull.
What it ate is still debated. Its short, toothless beak may have suited fruit and seeds, small animals, or a mix of both.
How to Unlock Tupandactylus in the Jurassic World Play App
Open the Jurassic World Play App (it used to be called the Jurassic World Facts App), tap Scan and point your camera at the DNA code below. The same code is on a small tag on the figure.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Danger Pack figures have no electronics. Tupandactylus has movable joints and a hidden tracking code for the app.
No. It was a pterosaur, a flying reptile closely related to dinosaurs but in a separate group.
Yes. A 2022 study found hair-like and branched feathers along the base of a Tupandactylus crest, with pigment structures suggesting different colours.
Tupã’s finger, after the Tupi thunder god Tupã. The species name imperator means emperor.
Its wingspan was probably around 3 to 5 m, with a crest several times taller than its skull.
Open the Jurassic World Play App, tap Scan and point your camera at the tag on the figure, or at the copy of the code on this page.