Dino card No. 0547 of 2,027

Dsungaripterus

Say it: suhn-GAR-ip-teh-rus

Name means: “Junggar wing”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Dsungaripterus was a flying reptile with long, narrow, upturned jaws that worked like tweezers. It used its toothless beak tip to poke into cracks and grab hard-shelled prey, then crushed them with flat, knobbly teeth at the back of its mouth.1 2

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

Lived

137 to 121 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

China (Xinjiang) and possibly Mongolia and South Korea1 4

Food

Fish1 2

Wingspan

3 to 3.5 m1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

wings as wide as 2 bicycles in a row

How big was Dsungaripterus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Dsungaripterus had a skull over 46 centimeters (18 inches) long, and its head and neck together were almost 1 meter (3.3 feet) long.1

Its jaws curved upward at the tip, and the front part had no teeth, probably covered by a horny sheath.2

It had bulbous, flat teeth at the back of its jaws, perfect for crushing the armor of shellfish.1

The bones of Dsungaripterus were thick-walled and sturdy, suggesting it spent a lot of time walking on the ground.1

It likely landed abruptly and flapped a lot, rather than soaring for long distances.1

Dsungaripterus had a low bony crest on top of its skull, running from the base of the skull to halfway to the beak.1

Fossils show grooves on the jaws that might have held a horny covering, protecting the beak while it probed for food.2

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

?How big was Dsungaripterus?

Dsungaripterus had a wingspan of 3 to 3.5 metres (9.8 to 11.5 feet). Its skull was over 46 centimetres (18 inches) long, and its head and neck together were almost 1 metre (3.3 feet) long.1

?What did Dsungaripterus eat?

It ate hard-shelled prey like shellfish. It used its toothless, upturned beak tip to poke into cracks and grab food, then crushed shells with its flat, knobbly back teeth.1 2

?Was Dsungaripterus a dinosaur?

No, Dsungaripterus was a pterosaur, a flying reptile, not a dinosaur. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight.3

?Why did Dsungaripterus have an upturned beak?

The upturned, toothless beak tip was probably used to probe and remove prey from cracks in rocks or sandy, muddy environments. It may have been covered by a horny sheath for protection.1 2

?Could Dsungaripterus walk on the ground?

Yes, its thick-walled, sturdy bones suggest it was mostly terrestrial and spent a lot of time walking on the ground. Pterosaurs could walk on all four limbs.1 3

?When did Dsungaripterus live?

Dsungaripterus lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 145 to 100 million years ago. Its fossils were found in China and possibly South Korea.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Dsungaripterus is often called a dinosaur.

Truth: It was actually a pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs but is not a dinosaur.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Dsungaripterus
Named by: Young 19644
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Dsungaripteridae4
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea4
Age of the rocks: 137 to 121 million years (Valanginian / Barremian)4
Rock formations: Lianmuqin, Tsagaantsav, Hutubihe4
Countries: China, Mongolia4
Fossil records: 4 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Dsungaripterus was named by Yang Zhongjian in 1964, based on a partial skull and skeleton from the Lianmuqin Formation in China. The species name weii honors paleontologist C.M. Wei.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Dsungaripterus and Noripterus lived in the same place at the same time, or in different layers.2

Where the facts come from

Dsungaripterus (en.wikipedia.org)
New anatomical information on Dsungaripterus weii Young, 1964 with focus on the palatal region (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Pterosaurs: The truth about these ‘flying dinosaurs’ | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Dsungaripterus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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