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Wightia

Say it: WIGHT-ee-uh

Name means: “pertaining to the Isle of Wight, where it was found, and slanting beak”1 3

Ate: Fruit and plantsFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Wightia was a flying reptile that lived about 127 million years ago. It had a long, pointed beak that curved downward, which helped it eat fruits. This pterosaur was one of the first tapejarids ever found in the United Kingdom.1 3

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

Lived

126 to 121 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Isle of Wight, United Kingdom1 3

Food

Fruit and plants3

Wingspan

1.2 m2

estimate, largest known specimen

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 2.5 house cats nose to tail

How big was Wightia compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Wightia is known from only a partial upper jaw bone, called a premaxilla.1

Its beak had a unique downward curve, which is a key feature of tapejarid pterosaurs.1

Wightia lived during the Barremian age of the Early Cretaceous, about 127 million years ago.1

This pterosaur was a frugivore, meaning it ate fruits, which is rare for flying reptiles.3

Wightia is the first tapejarid pterosaur ever found in the United Kingdom.1

The fossil was found on a wave-cut platform at Yaverland on the Isle of Wight.1

AI-made picture of Wightia — An AI-made picture of how Wightia 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: Wightia
Named by: Martill et al. 20203
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Tapejaridae3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 126 to 121 million years (Barremian)3
Rock formations: Wessex3
Countries: United Kingdom3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Wightia was named in 2020 by David M. Martill and colleagues. The fossil was collected by John Winch from the Wessex Formation on the Isle of Wight, UK.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure about the exact size of Wightia, because only a partial jaw bone has been found.1

Where the facts come from

First tapejarid pterosaur from the Wessex Formation (Wealden Group: Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of the United Kingdom (sciencedirect.com)
Wightia declivirostris | Pterosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Wightia 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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