Noripterus
Noripterus was a flying reptile that lived about 137 to 121 million years ago. It had a long beak and probably swooped over lakes to catch fish. It was not a dinosaur, but a pterosaur, a cousin of dinosaurs.4
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Fun facts
Noripterus belongs to a group called Dsungaripteridae, which were pterosaurs with strong jaws and teeth adapted for crushing shells.4
The name 'Phobetor' was once used for some Noripterus fossils, but that name was already taken by another animal, so scientists now call them Noripterus.42
The first Noripterus fossil was found in the Lianmuqin Formation in China, which is made of lake mudstone and sandstone.1
Noripterus lived during the Early Cretaceous, a time when many new kinds of pterosaurs and dinosaurs appeared.1
Scientists think Noripterus was a good flyer and spent much of its life near water, where it could find food.4
Most asked questions about Noripterus
?How big was Noripterus?
Noripterus was quite small for a pterosaur. Its maximum wingspan was about 4 metres (13 feet).3
?What did Noripterus eat?
Noripterus ate shellfish and other hard food. It used its long, toothless beak tip to pick up prey and its strong back teeth to crack shells.3
?Did Noripterus have teeth?
Yes, but only in the back of its jaws. The front of its beak had no teeth, which helped it probe for food.3
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Myth buster
Myth: Some people think Noripterus was a dinosaur because it lived with dinosaurs.
Truth: Noripterus was a pterosaur, a flying reptile that is not a dinosaur. Pterosaurs are a separate group of reptiles.4
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Noripterus
- Named by
- Young 19734
- Group
- Flying reptiles
- Family / clade
- Dsungaripteridae4
- Classification
- Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea4
- Age of the rocks
- 137 to 121 million years (Valanginian / Barremian)4
- Rock formations
- Lianmuqin, Tsagaantsav4
- Countries
- China, Mongolia4
- Fossil records
- 8 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Also known as
- Phobetor (older names now counted as the same animal)4
- Discovery
- Noripterus was named by Chinese scientist Young in 1973. The first fossils were found in the Wuerho area of Xinjiang, China.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating whether some fossils from Mongolia belong to Noripterus or to a separate, closely related genus.2
Where the facts come from
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- A taxonomic revision of Noripterus complicidens (Young, 1973) (qmro.qmul.ac.uk)
- Noripterus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Noripterus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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