Gnathosaurus

Gnathosaurus is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur containing two species: G. subulatus, named in 1833 from the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany, and G. macrurus, known from the Purbeck Limestone of the UK. Its fossil remains dated back to the Late Jurassic period.

Gnathosaurus

Dean Falk Schnabel · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
LophocratiaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 143.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 137.05 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 3 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 1 of 3 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 3 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous169–168 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences143–142 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences139–138 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences138–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165.3 Mya143.1 Mya168.8 Mya136.4 Mya

3 occurrences of Gnathosaurus on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Solnhofener Plattenkalk — 48.91°N, 11.38°ETaynton Limestone — 51.85°N, 1.43°W

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The named rock units Gnathosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gnathosaurus and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Gnathosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

37 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Gnathosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Gnathosaurus

Credit
Dean Falk Schnabel
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itLophocratia through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meyer 1833