Dsungaripterus

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Dsungaripterus Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Dsungaripterus weii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Order: Pterosauria Suborder: Pterodactyloidea Family: Dsungaripteridae Genus: Dsungaripterus Young, 1964
Species
D. weii (type) D. brancai

Dsungaripterus ("Wing of Junggar Basin") was a genus of pterosaur with an average wingspan of 3 metres (10 feet). It lived during the Early Cretaceous, ranging from China, where the first fossils were found in the Junngar Basin, to Africa, where more remains have been found. The closely related pterosaur, Phobetor parvus, was once originally assigned to this genus.

[edit] Appearance

It had a low, bony crest that ran down from the base of the skull to halfway to the beak. Including its neck, Dsungaripterus's head and neck was almost a meter long. Its most notable feature is its long, narrow, upcurved jaws with a pointed tip, making the animal look like a pair of flying tweezers. It had no teeth in the front part of its jaws, which were probably used to remove shellfish and worms from cracks in rocks or/and the sandy,muddy beaches it inhabited. It had knobbly molar-like knobs on the back of the jaw were well suited for crushing the armor of shellfish.