|G. rhamphastinus©Dmitry Bogdanov|
Germanodactylus species were raven sized with G. rhamphastinus being slightly larger than a raven and thus slightly larger than G. cristatus. Both species had crests upon their heads constructed of both bone and soft tissue and both portions have been evidenced in the fossil record. In 2002 S. Christopher Bennett produced a paper which described for the first time the soft tissue evidence of the fossil record. Bennett has additionally created arguments which confirm both species as valid in the genus, however, he was not the first to study the genus or the two species. The species were originally named P. cristatus in 1925 by Carl Wiman and Ornithocephalus in 1851 by Johann Andreas Wagner. Wagner's Ornithocephalus was added to Germanodactylus by Wellnhofer in 1970.