Dino card No. 1466 of 2,027

Prejanopterus

Say it: preh-jan-OP-ter-us

Name means: “wing from Préjano”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Prejanopterus was a flying reptile that lived about 125 million years ago in what is now Spain. It had a long, thin snout with many small teeth and probably ate fish. Its wings were wide and it could soar over ancient seas.1 3

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

Lived

121 to 120 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

La Rioja, Spain1 3

Wingspan

2 to 4.26 m (6.6 to 14 ft)1

scientists disagree; early estimate 4.26 m, later studies suggest not much over 2 m

Top speed

about 64 km/h (40 mph)

Flying, estimate

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 2.5 bicycles in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 5.9 seconds

How big was Prejanopterus compared to YOU?

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

How fast was it?

A person walking about 5 km/h (3 mph)

A kid on a bike about 12 km/h (7 mph)

Prejanopterus about 64 km/h (40 mph)

A galloping horse about 65 km/h (40 mph)

A cheetah about 100 km/h (62 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

Prejanopterus is the first pterosaur ever named from the Early Cretaceous of Spain.1

Its snout was originally thought to be bent sideways to the left, but later scientists found it only had a slight upward curve.1

The lower jaw of Prejanopterus was straight, not curved like the upper snout.1

It had 20 pairs of small teeth in its upper jaw, and some teeth were smaller than others.1

Scientists are not sure which group of pterosaurs Prejanopterus belongs to. It might be a pterodactylid or a lonchodectid.1

The fossils of Prejanopterus were found in the Leza Formation, which is about 125 million years old.1 3

AI-made picture of Prejanopterus — An AI-made picture of how Prejanopterus 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: Prejanopterus
Named by: Vidarte and Calvo 20103
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Ctenochasmatoidea3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 121 to 120 million years (Aptian)3
Rock formations: Leza3
Countries: Spain3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Prejanopterus was named in 2010 by Carolina Fuentes Vidarte and Manuel Meijide Calvo. They described it from fossils found near the village of Préjano in Spain.1 2
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether Prejanopterus was a pterodactylid, a lonchodectid, or something else.1

Where the facts come from

Prejanopterus (en.wikipedia.org)
A new pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea) from the Lower Cretaceous of La Rioja (Spain) | Boletín Geológico y Minero (bgm.revistas.csic.es)
Prejanopterus 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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