Dino card No. 0263 of 2,027

Bellubrunnus

Say it: bel-oo-BRUN-us

Name means: “beautiful one of Brunn”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesLate JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Bellubrunnus was a small flying reptile that lived about 150 million years ago in what is now Germany. It had a short tail and its wingtips curved forward, which is different from any other pterosaur. Scientists think it might have flown in a unique way.1

Fun fact: pterosaurs flew over the dinosaurs, but they were their cousins, not dinosaurs themselves.

Lived

152 to 149 million years ago4

Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Brunn quarry, Bavaria, Germany1

Food

Fish2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Bellubrunnus is known from only one fossil, a complete skeleton of a young juvenile.1

Unlike all other known pterosaurs, the wingtips of Bellubrunnus curve forward instead of backward.1

Bellubrunnus had 22 or fewer teeth in total, fewer than its close relative Rhamphorhynchus.1

Its tail was short and did not have the long bony rods that other similar pterosaurs had.1

The fossil was found in 2002 by Monika Rothgaenger, and the species is named after her.1

Bellubrunnus lived in a warm lagoon surrounded by coral reefs, about 150 million years ago.1

The name Bellubrunnus means 'beautiful one of Brunn', after the village where it was found.1

AI-made picture of Bellubrunnus — An AI-made picture of how Bellubrunnus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bellubrunnus

?How big was Bellubrunnus?

Bellubrunnus was very small, with a wingspan of less than 30 cm (about a foot). It is one of the smallest pterosaur fossils known.3

?What did Bellubrunnus eat?

Scientists are not certain, but its pointed teeth suggest it ate small animals like insects or fish. The fossil does not show any stomach contents.3

?Is Bellubrunnus a dinosaur?

No, Bellubrunnus is a pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived at the same time as dinosaurs. Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs.3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Bellubrunnus
Named by: Hone et al. 20124
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Rhamphorhynchidae4
Classification: Pterosauria > Rhamphorhynchidae4
Age of the rocks: 152 to 149 million years (Kimmeridgian)4
Countries: Germany4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Bellubrunnus was discovered in 2002 by Monika Rothgaenger at the Brunn quarry in Bavaria, Germany. It was named and described by scientists David Hone, Helmut Tischlinger, Eberhard Frey, and Martin Röper in 2012.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure how Bellubrunnus flew with its forward-curved wingtips, since no other pterosaur has that feature.1

Where the facts come from

A New Non-Pterodactyloid Pterosaur from the Late (journals.plos.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Bellubrunnus (en.wikipedia.org)
Bellubrunnus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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