Dino card No. 1319 of 2,027

Orientognathus

Say it: or-ee-EN-tog-nath-us

Name means: “eastern jaw”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Orientognathus was a flying reptile that lived in what is now China during the Late Jurassic. It had a long tail and a mouth full of sharp teeth, perfect for catching fish. It was one of the largest pterosaurs of its kind in that region.2 1

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

Lived

143 to 137 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, China2 1

Food

Fish3 2

Wingspan

1.1 m3

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

as long as 2 house cats nose to tail

How big was Orientognathus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Orientognathus is the largest rhamphorhynchine pterosaur found in the Upper Jurassic rocks of northeastern China.2

Its lower jaw tip was toothless and slightly pointed, unlike many other pterosaurs.2

The length of its wing metacarpal (hand bone) was only 38 percent of the length of its upper arm bone, a short ratio compared to other pterosaurs.2

Orientognathus had straight teeth, while some related pterosaurs like Fenghuangopterus had curved teeth.2

It lived about 155 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic, and is perhaps the youngest Jurassic pterosaur from western Liaoning, China.1 2

AI-made picture of Orientognathus — An AI-made picture of how Orientognathus 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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For dino experts

Scientific name: Orientognathus
Named by: Lu et al. 20153
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Rhamphorhynchidae3
Classification: Pterosauria > Rhamphorhynchidae3
Age of the rocks: 143 to 137 million years (Berriasian)3
Rock formations: Tuchengzi3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Orientognathus was named and described in 2015 by Lü Junchang and colleagues, based on an incomplete skeleton found in the Tuchengzi Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning, China.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Orientognathus belongs to the subfamily Rhamphorhynchinae or is a more basal rhamphorhynchid, because the fossil is incomplete.2 1

Where the facts come from

Orientognathus (en.wikipedia.org)
A new rhamphorhynchid pterosaur (Pterosauria) from Jurassic deposits of Liaoning Province, China (mapress.com)
Orientognathus 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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