Rhamphocephalus

Rhamphocephalus is an extinct genus of fossil reptile from the Middle Jurassic Cotswold Slate Formation of Gloucestershire, England. The name was erected as a genus of pterosaur and became a 'wastebasket taxon' for British Jurassic pterosaur remains until a recent revision. Rhamphocephalus comprises several named species, two of which are pterosaurian, but the type species - R. prestwichi - is based on remains now identified as a thalattosuchian. Because it is poorly preserved and lacks features that distinguish it from other thalattosuchians, R. prestwichi is considered an invalid species and the genus Rhamphocephalus is a nomen dubium. Reassessments of other Rhamphocephalus species suggest they are also undiagnostic to species level, although they have properties allowing referral to some Jurassic pterosaur groups.

Rhamphocephalus

MOS1985 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
RhamphorhynchinaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 3.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 161.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 154.8 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 9 of 10 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 1 of 10 occurrencesLate Jurassic168–168 Mya — about 1 occurrence168–167 Mya — about 1 occurrence167–167 Mya — about 1 occurrence167–166 Mya — about 1 occurrence166–166 Mya — about 1 occurrence166–165 Mya — about 1 occurrence165–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165.3 Mya161.5 Mya168.7 Mya154.3 Mya

10 occurrences of Rhamphocephalus on record, most of them in the Middle 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

10 occurrences

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

6 formations

Taynton Limestone — 51.85°N, 1.43°WCotswold Slate — 51.02°N, 3.25°WCotswold Slate — 51.90°N, 1.83°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.99°N, 1.80°WSharp's Hill — 51.91°N, 1.58°WGreat Oolite — 52.68°N, 0.46°WOxford Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°W

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The named rock units Rhamphocephalus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Rhamphocephalus and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Rhamphocephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

115 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Rhamphocephalus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

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

6 references

Each of the 10 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 Rhamphocephalus

Credit
MOS1985
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Rhamphocephalus 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

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 itRhamphorhynchinae through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Seeley 1880