Dino card No. 1810 of 2,027

Titanopteryx

Say it: tie-tan-OP-ter-ix

Name means: “giant wing”3

Ate: FishFlying reptilesLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Titanopteryx was a giant flying reptile that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. It was one of the biggest pterosaurs ever, with a wingspan as wide as a small airplane. It soared over ancient seas and coasts, hunting for fish.3 1

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

Lived

84 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Israel, Senegal, and New Jersey, USA3

Food

Fish3

Wingspan

11 to 13 m2

estimate based on comparison with Quetzalcoatlus sp.

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 3 cars in a row

How big was Titanopteryx compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Titanopteryx was first thought to be a wing bone, but scientists later realized it was a neck vertebra from a giant pterosaur.1

The name Titanopteryx was already used for a tiny black fly, so scientists renamed it Arambourgiania.1

Titanopteryx fossils have been found in rocks that are between 83 and 66 million years old.3

This pterosaur belonged to the Azhdarchidae family, which includes some of the largest flying animals ever.3

Titanopteryx lived near shallow seas and rivers, where it could easily find fish to eat.1

AI-made picture of Titanopteryx — An AI-made picture of how Titanopteryx 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: Titanopteryx
Named by: Arambourg 19593
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Azhdarchidae3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea > Azhdarchidae3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian / Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Mishash, Paki, Navesink3
Countries: Israel, Senegal, USA3
Fossil records: 3 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Titanopteryx was named by French paleontologist Camille Arambourg in 1959, based on a fossil from Jordan that was first mistaken for a wing bone.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Titanopteryx was, because only a few bones have been found.1

Where the facts come from

Review of taxonomy, geographic distribution, and paleoenvironments of Azhdarchidae (Pterosauria) (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Pteranodon and beyond: the history of giant pterosaurs from 1870 onwards (markwitton.co.uk)
Titanopteryx 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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