Dino card No. 0791 of 2,027

Hauffiopteryx

Say it: howf-ee-OP-tuh-ricks

Name means: “Hauff's wing”2

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursEarly JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Hauffiopteryx was a small, fast-swimming marine reptile that lived in the Early Jurassic seas. It looked a bit like a dolphin but was actually an ichthyosaur, a group of ocean-dwelling reptiles. With its long snout and big eyes, it was a skilled hunter of fish and squid.2 1

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

184 to 183 million years ago2

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Germany, England, and Switzerland1

Food

Meat2

Length

2 to 3 m1

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 17 bananas end to end

How big was Hauffiopteryx compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Hauffiopteryx had a very short snout compared to other ichthyosaurs, and its upper jaw stuck out a little bit past the lower jaw.1

Its belly ribs (gastralia) were extra long, reaching all the way to the 35th vertebra in its backbone, which is unique among ichthyosaurs from the same time.1

The holes on top of its skull (the temporal fenestrae) were small and round, unlike the larger openings in its relative Stenopterygius.1

Scientists think Hauffiopteryx might have had a special diet or hunting style because it only appears in rocks from a short time during the Early Jurassic, when the ocean had less oxygen.1

No one has ever found a baby Hauffiopteryx or any food remains inside its stomach, so how it grew and what it ate is still a mystery.1

Hauffiopteryx was first thought to be a type of Stenopterygius, but in 2008 scientists gave it its own genus because of its unique hip bones and other features.1

AI-made picture of Hauffiopteryx — An AI-made picture of how Hauffiopteryx 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.

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Myth buster

Myth: Hauffiopteryx is a dinosaur.

Truth: Hauffiopteryx is an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived in the sea, not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs lived on land.2

For dino experts

Scientific name: Hauffiopteryx
Named by: Maisch 20082
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Neoichthyosauria2
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha2
Age of the rocks: 184 to 183 million years (Toarcian)2
Rock formations: Beacon Limstone2
Countries: United Kingdom2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Hauffiopteryx was named by Michael W. Maisch in 2008. He studied fossils that had been found in Germany and England and realized they belonged to a new genus.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly what Hauffiopteryx ate or how it hunted, because no stomach contents have been found.1

Where the facts come from

Revision of Hauffiopteryx (palaeo-electronica.org)
Hauffiopteryx 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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