In Depth Liaodactylus is a genus of pterosaur that lived in Asia during the late Jurassic. Liaodactylus is noted for having numerous small teeth in comb-like structures that meshed together when the jaws closed. This would have allowed Liaodactylus to feed by filtering out small invertebrates from water and soft sediment. Further Reading - Earliest … Read more
In Depth Superficially Qinglongopterus has been found to be very similar to Rhamphorhynchus, the pterosaur that is the type genus of the Rhamphorhynchidae and to which Qinglongopterus is thought to be the most closely related. This however hints that both Qinglongopterus and Rhamphorhynchus represented their evolutionary limit as they are separated by many millions of … Read more
In Depth Nurhachius is perhaps most closely related to Istiodactylus even though the two are geographically separated by several thousand miles. However Nurhachius has a different skull which is lower with a slightly curved lower jaw. Nurhachius is named after the first khan of the Qing dynasty, who once ruled from the area where Nurhachius … Read more
In Depth Not many pterosaurs are known from Spain, but Prejanopterus is so far one of the better preserved specimens. The interesting thing about the Prejanopterus is that although the bottom jaw is straight, the upper jaw curves upwards and away from the bottom jaw. This is not considered a distortion of the jaw as … Read more
In Depth Ornithostoma was once considered to identical to Pteranodon, although modern thinking has it recognised as its own genus. Unfortunately Ornithostoma has suffered from the wastebasket effect with numerous poorly preserved remains being attributed to it. Although not much is known for certain, the toothless beak of Ornithostoma likely indicates a fish eating piscivorous … Read more
In Depth The type specimen of Huanhepterus was discovered when it was exposed after a quarry side was blasted by explosives. Unfortunately this blast also destroyed the right hand side of the specimen. Huanhepterus was placed within the Ctenochasmatoidea group of pterosaurs because of the large number of slender teeth, and for this reason Huanhepterus … Read more
In Depth Lonchognathosaurus had jaws that were typical of the dsungaripterid pterosaurs in that they were pointed and lacked teeth towards the front of the snout. It’s thought that pterosaurs like Lonchognathosaurus used this design to dig out invertebrates so that they can be crushed with the stout teeth towards the rear of the mouth. … Read more
In Depth Scaphognathus acquired the somewhat unglamorous name of ‘Tub jaw’ because of the robust snout construction. Still when first described, Scaphognathus was included into the pterodactyloidea because of the lack of a tail. This lack of tail actually misled the original examiner as in realty it had just failed to fossilise with the rest … Read more
In Depth Barbaridactylus is a genus of pterosaur that lived in North Africa during the late Cretaceous. Barbaridactylus has been identified as a nyctosauird pterosaur, a kind usually associated with coastal areas and hunting for fish. Further Reading - Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. - … Read more
In Depth The creation of the Tupandactylus pterosaur genus was born out of the reclassification of the Tapejara species, Tapejara imperator. This was done on the basis that Tapejara imperator displayed several notable differences to the Tapejara type species Tapejara wellnhoferi. A re-assignment for Tapejara navigans was also attempted for the new genus of … Read more