Rhamphorhynchus

Rhamphorhynchus is a genus of long-tailed pterosaurs in the Jurassic period. Less specialized than contemporary, short-tailed pterodactyloid pterosaurs such as Pterodactylus, it had a long tail, stiffened with ligaments, which ended in a characteristic soft-tissue tail vane. The mouth of Rhamphorhynchus housed needle-like teeth, which were angled forward, with a curved, sharp, beak-like tip lacking teeth, indicating a diet mainly of fish; indeed, fish and cephalopod remains are frequently found in Rhamphorhynchus abdominal contents, as well as in their coprolites.

A picture published with the record for Rhamphorhynchus.

M0tty · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
RhamphorhynchinaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria
Length
1.26 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 8.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 157.9 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 159 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 30 of 30 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 30 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences158–158 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 2 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 2 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 2 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 2 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 2 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 2 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 3 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 3 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 3 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 3 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 3 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 3 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 2 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences144–144 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences157.9 Mya149.2 Mya159.5 Mya142.6 Mya

30 occurrences of Rhamphorhynchus on record, most of them in the Late 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

30 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

13 formations

Solnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.17°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ESolnhofener Plattenkalk — 48.91°N, 11.38°EPainten — 48.92°N, 11.58°EPainten — 49.02°N, 11.98°EAltmühltal — 48.99°N, 11.20°ELiegende Bankkalk — 48.12°N, 8.87°ECabaços — 39.91°N, 8.95°WAlcobaça — 39.70°N, 8.80°WLourinhã — 39.85°N, 8.62°WTendaguru — 9.70°S, 39.23°ESolnhofen Platenkalk — 48.92°N, 11.50°ENusplingen Limestone — 48.13°N, 8.88°ELower Kimmeridge marls — 51.90°N, 10.51°EKimmeridge Clay — 50.60°N, 2.08°W

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The named rock units Rhamphorhynchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rhamphorhynchus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Rhamphorhynchus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

334 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Rhamphorhynchus, 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

10 references

Each of the 30 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 content3

Picture of Rhamphorhynchus

Credit
M0tty
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Rhamphorhynchus muensteri · NHMD:VP:1891.738

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
Free Standard
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itRhamphorhynchinae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meyer 1847