Scaphognathus crassirostris
By Nathan Rogers, @nathan-e-rogers, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.
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Name: Scaphognathus crassirostris
Name Meaning: Boat Jaw
First Described: 1861
Described By: Goldfuss
Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Ramphorhynchidae, Scaphognathinae
Scaphognathus is another relative of Rhamphorhynchus, from it’s own clade of pterosaurs more closely related to itself than to Rhamphorhynchus, the Scaphognathines. It was a relatively small Pterosaur, with a wingspan of 0.9 meters, and is known from three specimens. It was found in the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany, meaning that very well preserved slabs of the animal are known. It lived in the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic, approximately 155.7 to 150.8 million years ago.
By Dmitry Bogdanov, CC BY-SA 3.0
It had a shorter skull than its contemporary, Rhamphorhynchus, with a blunter tip, and more vertical teeth. This probably indicates that it fed on different organisms in their shoreline environment, showing an example of Niche Partitioning between the two closely-related species. It is thought that Scaphognathus was more of a land predator, tackling tougher prey than fish, which was probably the diet of Rhamphorhynchus. It was, however, around the same size as Rhamphorhynchus, which probably indicates that display and color would have helped different individuals tell apart the species.
Sources:
http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/scaphognathus.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphognathus
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