| Scaphognathus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Cast of the holotype specimen | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Family: | †Rhamphorhynchidae |
| Subfamily: | †Scaphognathinae |
| Genus: | †Scaphognathus Wagner, 1861 |
| Type species | |
| †Pterodactylus crassirostris Goldfuss, 1831 | |
| Species | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Scaphognathus was apterosaur that lived aroundGermany during theLate Jurassic. It had a wingspan of 0.9 m (3 ft).
The first knownScaphognathus specimen was described in 1831 byAugust Goldfuss[1] who mistook the tailless specimen for a newPterodactylus species:P. crassirostris.[2] Thespecific name means "fat snout" inLatin. This specimen was an incomplete adult with a 0.9 m (3 ft) wingspan recovered from the Solnhofen strata nearEichstätt. In 1858Johann Wagner referred the species toRhamphorhynchus. After recognising the fundamentally different snout shape, Wagner, after previous failed attempts byLeopold Fitzinger andChristoph Gottfried Andreas Giebel, who used preoccupied names, in 1861 named a distinct genus:Scaphognathus, derived from Greekskaphe, "boat" or "tub", andgnathos, "jaw", in reference to the blunt shape of the lower jaws.[3]
In the early twentieth century, the "rhamphorhynchoid" nature ofS. crassirostris was recognized after the discovery of the second specimen inMühlheim, whose long tail was preserved. The secondScaphognathus specimen was more complete than its predecessor, but only half the size (twenty inch wingspan) and with partially ossified bones.[2] These characters indicate that the second specimen was a juvenile.[2]
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TheScaphognathus is known from three specimens, all of which originated in theKimmeridgian-age[4]Solnhofen Limestone.[2] Physically it was very similar toRhamphorhynchus, albeit with notable cranial differences.[2]
For one,Scaphognathus had a proportionately shorter skull (4.5 in) with a blunter tip and a largerantorbital fenestra.[2] Its teeth oriented vertically rather than horizontally. The traditional count of them held that eighteen teeth were in the upper jaws and ten in the lower.[2]S. Christopher Bennett, studying a new third specimen, SMNS 59395, in 2004 determined there were only sixteen teeth in the upper jaws, the higher previous number having been caused by incorrectly adding replacement teeth.[5]
Comparisons between thescleral rings ofScaphognathus and modern birds and reptiles suggest that it may have beendiurnal. This may also indicateniche partitioning with contemporary pterosaurs inferred to benocturnal, such asCtenochasma andRhamphorhynchus.[6]
Thecladogram (family tree) of rhamphorhynchids below is the result of a largephylogenetic analysis published by Andres & Myers in 2013.[7]
