Dorygnathus

Dorygnathus banthensis

• Germany

Dorygnathus ( Gr. " Lanz jaw " ) was a genus of long-tailed pterosaurs from the Lower Jurassic, whose fossil remains were found in the Posidonia Shale.

Carl Theodori described the first 1830 found pine parts and individual bones banthensis as Ornithocephalus. 1860 saw the zoologist Johann Andreas Wagner, that it must be a new species and named it Dorygnathus. Ornithocephalus is now a synonym of pterodactyls.

Two species have been described. The fossil remains of Dorygnathus banthensis was found at Kloster Banz, at Creez near Bayreuth in wood grubs, as well as in the district of Helmstedt Flechtorf. Dorygnathus mistelgauensis was excavated in Mistelgau, also near Bayreuth.

The animals reached a wingspan of one meter, the wing -bearing bones - and thus the wing - were relatively short. The skull was elongated, were in the pines front long, front-facing, curved fangs that attacked its mouth closed together. In the back part of the jaw, smaller teeth were. Such teeth was undertaking an effective device for and holding slippery prey; very likely to Dorygnathus therefore fed on fish.

Striking is the extended laterally and spreadable fifth toe. If it was connected to a floating skin, this could have served as an aid when taking off from wave crests.