Dino card No. 0466 of 2,027

Cuspicephalus

Say it: KUSS-ih-SEFF-uh-lus

Name means: “pointed head”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesLate JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Cuspicephalus was a flying reptile that lived near the sea in what is now England. It had a very long, pointy skull and caught fish with its many teeth.2 3

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

Lived

155 to 152 million years ago3

Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset, England3 2

Food

Fish3

Wingspan

1.2 to 1.75 m2

estimated from skull size

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tail

How big was Cuspicephalus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Cuspicephalus had a skull that was almost five and a half times longer than it was tall. That is the most extreme ratio of any pterosaur.2

Its name means 'pointed head' and it was named after the cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, whose drawings often have very pointy noses.1

Cuspicephalus is one of the first non-pterodactyloid monofenestratan pterosaurs found outside China.1

The only known fossil is a flattened skull found on a beach at Kimmeridge Bay, part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.2 1

Cuspicephalus had at least 12 or 13 pairs of teeth in front of a large hole in its skull called the nasoantorbital fenestra.1

AI-made picture of Cuspicephalus — An AI-made picture of how Cuspicephalus 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 Cuspicephalus

?How big was Cuspicephalus?

It was a small pterosaur with a wingspan of about 1.2 to 1.75 metres. Its skull was 32.6 centimetres long.2 1

?What did Cuspicephalus eat?

It likely ate fish, catching them with its many sharp teeth. Its long, pointed skull was good for snatching prey from the water.2

?When did Cuspicephalus live?

It lived during the Late Jurassic period, about 155 to 150 million years ago. Its fossils were found in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation in England.2 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Cuspicephalus
Named by: Martill and Etches 20133
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Monofenestrata3
Classification: Pterosauria3
Age of the rocks: 155 to 152 million years (Kimmeridgian)3
Rock formations: Kimmeridge Clay3
Countries: United Kingdom3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Fossil collector Steve Etches found the partial skull in December 2009 at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset, England. Scientists David Martill and Steve Etches named it Cuspicephalus scarfi in 2013.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Cuspicephalus was more closely related to Darwinopterus or to pterodactyloids like Germanodactylus.1

Where the facts come from

A new monofenestratan pterosaur from the Kimmeridge (app.pan.pl)
Cuspicephalus (en.wikipedia.org)
Cuspicephalus 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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