Name:
Batrachognathus
(Frog jaw).
Phonetic: Ba-trak-og-na-fus.
Named By: Anatoly Nicolaevich Ryabinin - 1948.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Pterosauria,
Rhamphorhynchoidea, Anurognathidae.
Species: B. volans (type).
Diet: Insectivore.
Size: Wingspan estimated between 50 and 75
centimetres. Skull 48 millimetres long.
Known locations: Kazakhstan, Karatau Mountains, Tien
Shan foothills.
Time period: Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian of the
Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Incomplete and disarticulated
skeleton that includes skull fragments.
As
a member of the Anurognathidae, Batrachognathus is
seen as being
related to other pterosaurs
such as Dendrorhynchoides,
Jeholopterus
and
Anurognathus
itself. Unfortunately Batrachognathus has also
suffered
from being damaged during the fossilisation process with the tall and
broad skull being broken into several pieces as it lay under pressure
in the lacustrine sediment.
Back
in the Jurassic the area that the Batrachognathus
holotype specimen was
recovered from would have been a lake environment, and a perfect
breeding ground for the insects that would have presumably been the
preferred prey of Batrachognathus. Evidence for
this feeding style
comes from the recurved conical teeth, and the short broad snout making
it easier for Batrachognathus to trap flying
insects within its maw.
Further reading
- Remarks on a flying reptile from the Jurassic of the Kara-Tau. -
Akademia Nauk, Paleontological Institute, Trudy, 15(1): 86-93. - A. N.
Ryabinin - 1948.