Types of Pterosaurs
The first pterosaur named from the region, Araripesaurus castilhoi, was described by Llewellyn Ivor Price in 1971. Unlike most other Santana Formation pterosaurs, Araripesaurus is not based on much material, only a single partial wing. Despite decades of further research, no additional specimens referable to Araripesaurus have been discovered.
Like most non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs, Dimorphodon was a competent climber, possessing proportionally large and curved ungals and a low center of gravity.
The known Dsungaripteridae range from the Late Jurassic to the Cretaceous (Hauterivian). The group belongs to the Dsungaripteroidea sensu Unwin and is presumably relatively closely related to the Azhdarchoidea. According to Unwin, Germanodactylus is the sister taxon to the group, but his analyses have this outcome as the only ones.
Often known as the ugliest pterosaur ever thanks to its big head and upward-curving jaws, Dsungaripterus was a medium-sized animal. It hails from the Early Cretaceous of China’s Junggar Basin. The only species in the genus, Dsungaripterus weii, was named by renowned paleontologist C.C. Young in 1964 on the basis of a well-preserved partial skull and skeleton.
Pterosaurs Families Environments Journals What is a pterosaur? What is a pterosaur? They were not dinosaurs as most assume, instead being flying reptiles and rather close relatives. These creatures are often known as “pterodactyls” in the public consciousness but in reality are known as pterosaurs.
Kunpengopterus sinensis Wang et al., 2010 Kunpengopterus is a genus of wukongopterid pterosaur from the middle-late Jurassic or early Cretaceous of northeastern China.
Ornithocheirus (from Ancient Greek "ὄρνις", meaning bird, and "χεῖρ", meaning hand) is a pterosaur genus known from fragmentary fossil remains uncovered from sediments in the UK.
Pteranodon was the first pterosaur found outside of Europe. Its fossils first were found by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1870, in the Late Cretaceous Smoky Hill Chalk deposits of western Kansas.
Pterosaurs are also colloquially referred to as pterodactyls, particularly in fiction and by journalists. However, technically, pterodactyl only refers to members of the genus Pterodactylus, and more broadly to members of the suborder Pterodactyloidea of the pterosaurs.
Pterodactyloidea is traditionally considered to be the group of short-tailed pterosaurs with long wrists (metacarpus), compared with the relatively long tails and short wrist bones of basal pterosaurs ("rhamphorhynchoids").
Quetzalcoatlus northropi / k ɛ t s əl k oʊ ˈ æ t l ə s / is a pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous of North America (Maastrichtian stage) and one of the largest-known flying animals of all time.
Rhamphorhynchus (/ ˌ r æ m f ə ˈ r ɪ ŋ k ə s, -f oʊ-/, "beak snout") is a genus of long-tailed pterosaurs in the Jurassic period. Less specialized than contemporary, short-tailed pterodactyloid pterosaurs such as Pterodactylus, it had a long tail, stiffened with ligaments, which ended in a characteristic diamond-shaped vane.
Scaphognathus was a pterosaur that lived around Germany during the Late Jurassic. It had a wingspan of 0.9 m (3 ft).
Sordes was a small pterosaur from the late Jurassic (Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian) Karabastau Svita of Kazakhstan. The genus was named in 1971 by Aleksandr Grigorevich Sharov. The type species is Sordes pilosus.
Tapejara (from a Tupi word meaning "the old being") is a genus of Brazilian pterosaur from the Cretaceous Period (Santana Formation, dating to about 112 Ma ago). Tapejara crests consisted of a semicircular crest over the snout, and a bony prong which extended back behind the head.
Tupuxuara is a member of the group Azhdarchoidea. Kellner assigned it to the Tapejaridae within Azhdarchoidea. According to some analyses however, Tupuxuara is closer to the Azhdarchidae (the group that includes the giant Texan form Quetzalcoatlus) than to Tapejara and its relatives.