Flying Dinosaurs: Dorygnathus ("spear jaw")

 
 Dorygnathus banthensis restoration; the tail form is hypothetical

 
With its long tail and narrow wings, Dorygnathus was a good example of what paleontologists call a "rhamphorhynchoid" pterosaur.

Rhamphorhynchoids have been found almost exclusively in western Europe, though it's not clear if this is because they were confined to this geographical location or if conditions in early Jurassic Europe happened to be well-suited for fossil preservation.

The most notable feature of Dorygnathus was its long, intermeshing front teeth, which it almost certainly used to snag fish off the surface of the water and hold them firmly in its mouth. Although the fossil specimens discovered so far have been fairly small, as pterosaurs go, there's some speculation that adults of the species may have grown throughout their lives and attained wingspans of five or six feet.


A cast in the Urwelt-Museum Hauff at Holzmaden of UUPM R 156, a specimen sold by Bernhard Hauff to the University of Uppsala in 1925