CategoriesDinosaurs

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to take to the skies

COLOBORHYNCHUS MOROCCOENSIS

Cretaceous age (- 136 millions years old) 

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to take to the skies. Learn about the anatomical features that made their flight possible, how large some of these creatures grew, and which species was named after a vampire legend.

Coloborhynchus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur belonging to the family Anhangueridae, though it has also been recovered as a member of the Ornithocheiridae in some studies. Coloborhynchus is known from the Lower Cretaceous of England (Valanginian age, 140 to 136 million years ago) and depending on which species are included, possibly the Albian and Cenomanian ages (113 to 93.9 million years ago) as well. Coloborhynchus was once thought to be the largest known toothed pterosaur, however, a specimen of the closely related Tropeognathus is now thought to have had a larger wingspan.

 

Like many ornithocheiroid pterosaurs named during the 19th century, Coloborhynchus has a highly convoluted history of classification. Over the years numerous species have been assigned to it, and often, species have been shuffled between Coloborhynchus and related genera by various researchers.

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