Noripterus

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Noripterus
Fossil range: Lower Cretaceous
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Pterosauria
Suborder: Pterodactyloidea
Family: Germanodactylidae?
Genus: Noripterus
Species: N.complicidens

Noripterus was a pterosaur that lived in China during the Early Cretaceous period, 146 million years ago. Its name means "lake wing". It is known from a single wing and jaw fragment found in Xinjiang Province in China in 1970. Although smaller than Dsungaripterus, its lower jaw was similarly toothless at the front, and for this reason it has been placed in the Dsungaripteridae family, though Unwin (2003) found that it probably belongs to the closely related family Germanodactylidae.

[edit] References

  • Dr. Peter Wellnhofer (1991). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs. London: Salamander Books. ISBN 0-86101-566-5.