Pterosaur flying reptile — Rhamphorhynchus muensteri

Geologic period: Late Jurassic

Age: Approximately 153 to 151 million years ago in the Smithsonian Deep Time interpretation.

Feeding: Predatory feeding on small aquatic or terrestrial prey is inferred from anatomy and related evidence.

Locomotion: Powered flight.

Body plan: Lightweight flying reptile with a long tail and a membrane wing supported primarily by an elongated fourth finger.

Evidence: Skeleton and wing impressions are direct fossil evidence.

Why it matters: Soft-tissue wing impressions let visitors see evidence normally lost during fossilization and explain exactly how pterosaur wings differed from bird and bat wings.

Plain Language Identity: A Late Jurassic long-tailed pterosaur preserved with rare impressions of its wing membranes.

What You Are Looking At: A nearly complete fossil skeleton preserving impressions of the soft wing membranes.

Ecosystem: Late Jurassic Solnhofen lagoon environment of Germany.

Find Location: Germany.

Preservation: Exceptional skeleton with soft-tissue impressions.

Open Questions: Pterosaurs were flying reptiles, not flying dinosaurs.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/factsheets/david-h-koch-hall-fossils-deep-time; https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-truth-about-pterosaurs.html

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title + scientific name + source scene matched; historic taxonomy retained where relevant; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Rhamphorhynchus muensteri

Evidence / representation: comparative_taxon_visual

comparative_taxon_visual

Jurassic Giants: Size, Teeth, Armor and Survival.

Media license: CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0