Gnathosaurus

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Gnathosaurus
Fossil range: Late Jurassic

Fossil cast of Gnathosaurus subulatus.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Pterosauria
Suborder:	Pterodactyloidea
Family:	Ctenochasmatidae
Genus:	Gnathosaurus von Meyer, 1833

Species

G. subulatus von Meyer, 1833 (type)

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, 28 cm 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 teleosaurid 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 teeth arranged in a spoon shape may have been used to strain water for small animals, although this is conjectural.