Gnathosaurus
Art: Joschua Knüppe
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Gnathosaurus
/nath-oh-SORE-us/
This filter-feeder was one of many Solnhofen pterosaurs, and like many of them it was a small creature that lived close to the sea. It strained its food from the water with a set of long, thin teeth and a rather spoonbill-shaped jaw.
Pterosaur data
Mesozoic era · 252–66 Ma
Wingspan
About this pterosaur
The genus Gnathosaurus contains two species. There is the type G. subulatus and a second named G. macrurus from farther afield. Gnathosaurus seems to have been rather wide-ranging, with the type species found in the famed Solnhofen Limestone and the second found in England's Purbeck Limestone. The latter is a marine formation in Dorset with fossils from the very end of the Jurassic, and converging upon the very beginning of the Cretaceous.
It was another oceanic pterosaur from the Late Jurassic, similar to many other Solnhofen pterosaurs and its first fossils were thought to be a part of a marine crocodile. These finds were discovered in 1833, while the British remains were documented later. It was a filter-feeder like its contemporary Ctenochasma, and was a member of the same family. Its wingspan was nothing special, at around 1.75 meters across.
Across the network
Credits
