Campylognathoides
Name:
Campylognathoides
(Curved jaw).
Phonetic: Cam-py-log-nath-oy-des.
Named By: Strand - 1928.
Synonyms: Pterodactylus liasicus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Pterosauria, Rhamphorhynchoidea, Campylognathoididae,
Campylognathoidinae.
Species: C. zitteli (type),
C.
liasicus, C. indicus (This species has been
questioned).
Type: Piscivore.
Size: C. liasicus about 90
centimetre wingspan, C.
zitteli about 180 centimetre wingspan.
Known locations: Germany. Possibly India depending
upon the validity of C. indicus.
Time period: Toarcian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Many individual specimens.
Campylognathoides
was much like the other basal pterosaurs
that flew in the skies of
Jurassic Europe. It is also probably that Campylognathoides
shared
the skies with the well-known pterosaur Dorygnathus
as evidenced by the
presence of both pterosaurs in the same fossil beds. However,
although usually depicted as a fish hunting piscivore,
Campylognathoides may have had different prey in
mind to avoid direct
competition with Dorygnathus. Good justification
for this view can be
seen in the shorter jaws of Campylognathoides which
are less suited to
plucking fish out of the water while on the wing. An alternative is
that while Campylognathoides did live in coastal
areas as evidenced by
the fossil sites, it may not have been restricted to them. Also
while living at the coast, it may have hunted for land animals, or
even lived the life of a beach comber, feeding upon whatever the
previous tide had washed in.
Like
in other rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs, the caudal vertebra of the tail
were lashed firm by tendons, and presumably used as a steering aid in
flight, something that is thought to be quite possible because the
base of the tail is still flexible. While the actual arms are short,
Campylognathoides still achieved a long wing by
having an
exceptionally long fourth digit, the finger that actually made the
outer trailing edge in pterosaur wings.
One
of the Campylognathoides species, C.
indicus
may yet prove to be
non-existent. This is because C. indicus was
based only on a
partial jaw that may yet prove to not belong to a pterosaur at all.
Also the Kota Formation that it was recovered has since been found to
represent a different period in Earth history. Also C.
liasicus has
also been considered to be the same as C. zittelli
on the principal
that it may represent a younger specimen. Unfortunately the type
specimen of C. liasicus is poorly preserved and
the juvenile stages
of C. zitteli are not well known like they are in
other pterosaurs
such as Rhamphorhynchus.
Without more juvenile becoming known, it
is almost impossible to say that C. liasicus is
the juvenile form of
C.zitteli, and for the time being at least, it
is still treated as
a separate species.
Further reading
- Campylognathus Zitteli, ein neuer Flugsaurier aus
dem obersten Lias
Schwabens. - Pal�ontographica 41. - F. Plieninger - 1894.
- Campylognathoides liasicus (Quenstedt), an Upper
Liassic pterosaur
from Holzmaden — The Pittsburgh specimen. - Annals of Carnegie Museum,
45: 5-34. - P. Wellnhofer - 1974.
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