Batrachognathus

''Batrachognathus'' is an extinct genus of anurognathid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic ( Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian) Karabastau Formation of the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan. The genus was named in 1948 by the Russian paleontologist Anatoly Nicolaevich Ryabinin. The type species is ''Batrachognathus volans''. The genus name is derived from Greek ''batrakhos'', "frog" and ''gnathos'', "jaw", in reference to the short wide head. The specific epithet means "flying" in Latin.

Description

''Batrachognathus'' was a small pterosaur, with a wingspan of and body mass of . Like all anurognathids ''Batrachognathus'' is assumed to have been an insectivore, catching insects and perhaps small fish on the wing with its broad mouth.

Three fossils have been found in a lacustrine sediment in the North-West Tien Shan foothills of the Karatau Mountains. In the Jurassic this area had some similarities in habitat to the Solnhofen lagoon deposits in Bavaria, Germany. The genus is based on holotype PIN 52-2, an incomplete and disarticulated skeleton consisting of skull fragments, jaws, vertebrae, ribs, legs and wing bones. The skull of 48 mm (1.9 in) long is high, short and broad. The upper jaws have in total 22 or 24 recurved conical teeth; with the lower jaws they make a short and very wide mouth. The animal is not preserved with a tail. Whether it had one is debatable; usually it is assumed a short tail was present.

Classification

''Batrachognathus'' was assigned to the Anurognathidae, as a relative of ''Anurognathus''. In 2003 Alexander Kellner named the clade Asiaticognathidae to include it and the Asian Anurognathid ''Dendrorhynchoides''. Christopher Bennett pointed out the name Asiaticognathidae was inappropriate, as the clade lacked an ''Asiaticognathus'', and in 2009 Kellner proposed Batrachognathinae as a replacement.Alexander W. A. Kellner, Xiaolin Wang, Helmut Tischlinger, Diogenes de Almeida Campos, David W. E. Hone, and Xi Meng. (2009). "The soft tissue of ''Jeholopterus'' (Pterosauria, Anurognathidae, Batrachognathinae) and the structure of the pterosaur wing membrane", ''Proc. R. Soc. B'' According to an analysis in 2006 by Lü Junchang, ''Batrachognathus'' and ''Jeholopterus'' are sister taxa. In 2021, a phylogenetic analysis conducted by Xuefang Wei and colleagues recovered ''Batrachognathus'' within the subfamily Batrachognathinae, sister taxon to the genus ''Sinomacrops''. Below is a cladogram representing their phylogenetic analysis:

See also

* List of pterosaur genera
* Timeline of pterosaur research

References

* Dinosaurs and other Prehistoric Creatures, edited by Ingrid Cranfield, 2000 Salamander Books Ltd pg 280-281.

{{Portal bar, Paleontology

Late Jurassic pterosaurs of Asia
Monofenestratans
Fossil taxa described in 1948