Gnathosaurus

Gnathosaurus

Eumetazoa

Gnathosaurus
Temporal range: Late Jurassic
Cast of a fossil specimen
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: †Pterosauria
Suborder: †Pterodactyloidea
Family: †Ctenochasmatidae
Genus: †Gnathosaurus
Meyer, 1833
Species: †G. subulatus
Binomial name
Gnathosaurus subulatus
Meyer, 1833
Synonyms

Crocodylus multidens Münster, 1832
Pterodactylus micronyx? Meyer, 1852
Pterodactylus macrurus Seeley, 1869
Gnathosaurus multidens (Münster, 1832)
Gnathosaurus macrurus (Seeley, 1869)

Gnathosaurus (meaning 'jaw lizard') is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur known from a single species, G. subulatus, described in 1833. This pterosaur had an estimated wingspan of about 1.7 meters. The slender, 28-cm-long skull had up to 130 needle-like teeth arranged laterally around the spoon-shaped tip. Fragments of Gnathosaurus jaw were first discovered in 1832 in the Solnhofen limestones of Southern Germany but were mistaken for a piece of teleosaurid crocodile jaw, hence the synonym Crocodylus multidens. Only when a skull was found in 1951 was the animal found to have been a pterosaur. The teeth arranged in a spoon shape may have been used to strain water for small animals, although this is conjectural.

Fossil specimen of a juvenile (formerly Pterodactylus micronyx) from the Solnhofen Limestones of Germany. Carnegie Museum of Natural History #CM11426.

Several paleontologists, such as Christopher Bennett, have suggested that a purported tiny Pterodactylus species, P. micronyx, is likely a juvenile of Gnathosaurus subulatus.[1]

References

  1. ^ Bennett, S.C. (2002). "Soft tissue preservation of the cranial crest of the pterosaur Germanodactylus from Solnhofen." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 22(1): 43-48.

See also

References


Stub icon This pterosaur-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.