Ctenochasma elegans
Ctenochasma is a genus of Late Jurassic ctenochasmatid pterosaur belonging to the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Three species are currently recognized: C. roemeri, C. taqueti, and C. elegans. Their fossilized remains have been found in the Solnhofen Limestone of Bavaria, Germany, the "Purbeck Group" of northeastern Germany, and the Calcaires tâchetés of eastern France.

Pterodactylus_kochi_(top)_and_pterodactylus_elegans.JPG : Ghedoghedo derivative work: Haplochromis ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- CtenochasmaPBDB
- Diet
- piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Pterosauria
Time the record covers
At most 4.2 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 149.2 Mya and 145.06 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
4 occurrences of Ctenochasma elegans on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
4 occurrences- Late Jurassic100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
2 formations
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The named rock units Ctenochasma elegans has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Ctenochasma elegans and its relatives
Late JurassicWhere Ctenochasma elegans and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
18 taxa- Pterodactylus kochi2 sites
- Pterodactylus micronyx2 sites
- Alligatorellus beaumonti bavaricus1 site
- Anurognathus ammoni1 site
- Ardeadactylus longicollum1 site
- Cycnorhamphus suevicus1 site
- Germanodactylus cristatus1 site
- Gnathosaurus subulatus1 site
- Macrourogaleus hassei1 site
- Mesolimulus walchi1 site
- Muensterella scutellaris1 site
- Pterodactyloidea1 site
- Pterodactylus antiquus1 site
- Pterodactylus spectabilis1 site
- Rhamphorhynchus1 site
- Rhamphorhynchus muensteri1 site
- Scaphognathus crassirostris1 site
- Trachyteuthis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Ctenochasma elegans, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
3 references- Die Pterodactyloidea (Pterosauria) der Oberjura-Plattenkalke Süddeutschlands [The Pterydactyloidea (Pterosauria) of the Upper Jurassic plattenkalks of southern Germany]2
- Localidades de vertebrados fósiles en la Republica Méxicana [Vertebrate fossil localities in the Mexican Republic]1
- Lydekker, 18881
Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Ctenochasma elegans
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Pterodactylus_kochi_(top)_and_pterodactylus_elegans.JPG : Ghedoghedo derivative work: Haplochromis ( talk )
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Ctenochasma elegans was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Ctenochasma”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itCtenochasma through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Wagner 1861)