Gnathosaurus
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Gnathosaurus subulatus von Meyer, 1833 |
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Gnathosaurus is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur known from a single species, G. subulatus, described in 1833. This pterosaur had an estimated wingspan of around 1.7 meters. The slender, 28cm 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, and were mistaken for a piece of crocodile jaw, hence the synonym Crocodylus multidens. Only until a skull was found in 1951 - more than a century later - was the animal found to have been a pterosaur.
The Gnathosaurus diet is entirely hypothetical. The teeth arranged in a spoon shape may have been used to strain water for small animals, although this is conjectural.
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