Scaphognathus

Live image of Scaphognathus crassirostris

• Solnhofen
• Mülheim ( Moernsheim ) at Solnhofen

Scaphognathus ( "When Kiefer" ) was a genus of long-tailed pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic, which is only known from two fossil specimens from the Solnhofen limestone. Both specimens belong to the type species S. crassirostris.

The first copy of the Bavarian Solnhofen in 1831 described by Bonner Professor Georg August Goldfuß as Pterodactylus crassirostris. It was one of the first flying dinosaurs that were found and the first with a long tail that was not preserved in the first instance. Today, the fossil is in the collection of the University of Bonn.

The second copy was found in Mülheim ( Moernsheim ) at Solnhofen. It is half as large Offspring, who had a long, yet flexible tail. Some bones in the foot were not yet fully ossified. On the basis of this specimen belonging to the genus to the long-tailed Rhamphorhynchidae was detected. The zoologist Johann Andreas Wagner (1797-1861) proposed the genus Scaphognathus 1861.

Scaphognathus has a shorter, fitted with large windows skull skull as Rhamphorhynchus. His teeth, 18 maxillary and 10 mandibular stand upright and are not directed as in this, to the front. Since the upper jaw slightly goes up at the end, the jaw ends do not touch its mouth closed. Whether the jaw was adapted to fish or to hunt for insects, is still unclear. The adult specimen must have had a wingspan of 90 centimeters, the younger reached half a meter.