Extinct Creatures-- Anurognathus
Added 2016-09-28 18:23:24 +0000 UTCAnurognathus is by far the cutest pterosaur. Sorry to all other pterosaurs, you just can't beat this little flat-faced, big-eyed bug eater.
Anurognathus lived in the late Jurassic of what is now Germany. It hunted insects during dusk and twilight, which is why its eyes are so adorably big. In Mark Witton's excellent book Pterosaurs, he describes little tufts of pycnofibers along the terminal edges of their wings, which would help them fly silently (some owls have structures like these, too!) They are super neat little bat mimics-- or, I should say, bats are super neat Anurognathus mimics, since Anurognathus did it first.
These are much smaller than the other pterosaurs I've posted, but the pterosaurs of the Late Jurassic were not exactly behemoths-- many weren't much larger than ravens, though there were a few big boys among the small friends. Though the first pterosaur ever described, Pterodactlyus, was not among them, with a wingspan of only about 3 feet-- which probably comes as a bit of a surprise since the media constantly confuses it with the much larger Pteranodon (which lived in the late Cretaceous.) Pterodactyl(us) was not big enough to carry away even the smallest human child. And probably neither could a Pteranodon. Quetzalcoatlus, however...
I hope you have enjoyed your pterosaur for the day, see you tomorrow with another--
-Abby
