Fun Pterorhynchus Facts For Kids

While talking about the Jurassic era, the only animal that comes to our mind is a dinosaur. Unfortunately, this is not true.

There were several other primitive land animals, birds, and marine animals that coexisted during the Jurassic-Cretaceous age. The pterosaur was a clade of flying animals that were present during the Jurassic-Cretaceous age. They were not similar to the feathered dinosaurs and the origin of their wings was actually membranous skin.

The literal meaning of the term Pterorhyncus is wing snout. The unusual meaning of the name of these dinosaurs and the origin refers to the elongated head crest of the specimen which looks like a snout. In 2002, Ji Qiang and Stephen Czerkas described and named the specimen collected from this Formation as Pterorhyncus.

The wings of the specimen neither matched with birds nor with bats. They were much different from the feathered dinosaurs.

The feathered dinosaurs had wings made up of feathers but their wings were made up of skin. Therefore they were included as one of the genera of the Pterosaurs. To know more about these reptiles, keep on reading these facts.

For similar content check out Acheroraptor and Ojoceratops facts too.

Pterorhynchus Interesting Facts

Was the pterorhynchus a dinosaur?

Even though the Pterorhynchus existed during the Middle Jurassic period, it is not actually a dinosaur. It was a primitive genus of flying reptiles that coexisted with the terrestrial dinosaurs during this geological period.

They were one of the members of the Pterosaur community and unlike the feathered dinosaurs and the origin of their wings, their wings were made from skin and muscle. The genus was discovered from the Daohugou Formation of Mongolia.

How do you pronounce 'Pterorhynchus'?

The name Pterorhyncus is pronounced as  'Teh-ro-rink-us'. The pronunciation of the letter P remains silent in their name.

What type of prehistoric flying bird was a Pterorhynchus?

The bone and the skull structure of the preserved Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi in the Daohugou Formation suggest that it neither belongs to a dinosaur nor does it belong to birds. The specimen belongs to the group of pterosaurs or flying reptiles.

The pterosaur coexisted from the Jurassic up to the cretaceous period along with several other dinosaur species.

The pterodactyloid is the suborder of pterosaur containing the Pterorhyncus. These avian reptiles survived the latest when all the dinosaur species and other non-avian animals became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous age.

In which geological period did the Pterorhynchus live?

The fossil specimen of Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi belongs to the middle Jurassic age. It is believed that they existed around 164 million years ago when the Callovian stage of the Jurrasic period was ongoing.

When did the Pterorhynchus become extinct?

Pterorhyncus lasted up to the Oxfordian stage. The Oxfordian stage ended around 157 million years ago but the exact geological period when these reptiles became extinct is not known.

Where did a Pterorhynchus live?

The pterrhyncus fossils were found from the Daohugou Formation of Inner Mongolia. Therefore it is believed that they lived in North Asia.

What was a Pterorhynchus's habitat?

The Pterorhyncus was avian in nature. They preferred to inhabit a ridge and nested there.

Who did a Pterorhynchus live with?

The Pterorhyncus fossils were discovered from the bone beds of many animals including dinosaurs and reptiles. So whether it lived in groups with the members of their clade or not has not been determined.

How long did Pterorhynchus live?

A known pterosaur called Pteranodon lived for four million years but the accurate span for which the Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi lived is not known. As the process of evolution continues, they went extinct in the Oxfordian stage.

How did they reproduce?

The reproduction process was similar to those of present-day birds. They laid eggs and juveniles emerged from them. After a while of nesting, the juveniles flew the nest.

Pterorhynchus Fun Facts

What did a Pterorhynchus look like?

The physical description of Pterorhyncus originates from the fossil of a single specimen that has been discovered from the Daohugou Formation of Mongolia. The description is more or less complete since a more or less complete skeleton was recovered.

Remains including wing membrane, hair tuft, and a type of vane found at the end of rhamphorhynchoid tail have been discovered. The head crest had a bony and large base.

The pterosaur that belongs to the rhamphorhynchoid suborder does not necessarily have a head crest. The crest has a sharp angular front and it finally curved back to the base.

They have a fair deal of soft tissue integument in their body. The soft tissue integument was quite prominent in males

How many bones did a Pterorhynchus have?

The total number of bones present in the body of the Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi is not known. Almost a complete skeleton of the animal has been discovered including hair fibers, wing membrane, the tail vane, and a skull with the crest.

How did they communicate?

There is no data regarding the communication of the animal.

How big was a Pterorhynchus?

The length of the Pterorhyncus is unknown but they had a wingspan of 33 in (83.8 cm). Their wingspan was five times smaller than Zhejiangopterus.

How fast could a Pterorhynchus move?

The pterosaurs could fly very fast but the speed of a Pterorhyncus is unknown.

How much did a Pterorhynchus weigh?

Unlike the Pteranodon that weighed 110 lb (49.8 kg), the weight of a Pterorhyncus has not been determined.

What were the male and female names of the species?

The male and female species do not have any specific names. They were called Pterorhyncus.

What would you call a baby Pterorhynchus?

A baby Pterorhyncus is referred to as a flapling,

What did they eat?

Generally, the pterosaur was carnivorous in nature and they used to feed on fish. Unfortunately, the diet of Pterorhyncus is unknown.

How aggressive were they?

The Pterorhyncus being carnivorous in nature were quite aggressive.

Did you know...

Earlier, Pterorhyncus was described as one of the members of Rhamphorhynchidae and a relative of pterodactyloid pterosaurs.

How many Pterodactyl fossils have been found?

Pterodactyl was another genus of the Pterosaur family of flying reptiles just like the Pterophyncus. They were also one of the late Jurassic flying reptiles that had wings formed of wing membrane unlike the feathered dinosaurs and the origin was traced to many parts of Europe and Africa.

They were one of the most well-known among all Pterosaurid genera since most of its fossil could be preserved. The fossil of Pterodactyl was predominantly discovered from the Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria in Germany.

These fossils also date back to the Jurassic period about 150 million years ago.

Some fragments of preserved fossils of the Pterodactyl specimen have also been discovered from other parts of Europe as well as some parts of Africa. Pterodactylus antiquus was known from more than 3o fossils most of which belonged to juvenile individuals.

The skeletons that were identified were more or less complete. The fossil belongs to the Altmuhltal Formation mainly.

What does the term Pterorhynchus mean?

The literal meaning of the name Pterorhynchus is wing snout. It is a type of pterosaur that lived during the Middle Jurassic Age.

They were winged reptiles whose wings were made of wing membrane unlike the feathered dinosaurs and the origin is traced back to the Daohugou Formation of Mongolia. The name is derived from the combination of two Greek words, pteron and rhynchos. Pteron means wing and rhyncos meaning snout refers to the elongated shaped head crest.

Only a single fossil specimen has been collected from the Daohugou Formation and they were called Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi. The specific mane of the species is given in honor of the German researcher Peter Wellnhofer who started the research.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly prehistoric animal facts for everyone to discover! For more relatable content, check out these Tupandactylus fun facts, or Thalassomedon facts for kids.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable winged dinosaurs coloring pages.