Tropeognathus is an anhanguerid pterosaurian reptile from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil. It was named in 1987 by Peter Wellnhofer. It was the biggest pterosaur to fly the skies of the Early Cretaceous, only being beaten in size by a few Late Cretaceous azhdarchids; as well as this, it is sometimes regarded as a species of the now-dubious pterosaur genus "Ornithocheirus", although not everyone is in agreement about this.
Physiology[]
Tropeognathus resembled the generic Early Cretaceous pteranodontoid, a large pterosaur with 4 legs (2 of which served as wings), 4 fingers on each hand (one of which was elongated and supported the wing membrane), a small body, a small crest, a short tail, and a long, toothy beak. As well as this, it had rounded, keel-like crests on the tip of its beak, with the crest on its upper beak being larger than that on the lower beak. Most of its body (excluding its beak, crest, and wings) would have been covered in a fur-like covering called pycnofibers.
Diet[]
Tropeognathus was a predator, preying on small fish and cephalopods. Its teeth were small yet sharp, and were used to get a hold of slippery prey.
Ecology[]
Tropeognathus' habitat was a coastal, swampy rift valley; while pterosaurs such as Tapejara would have lived further inland, Tropeognathus would have frequented the shoreline, flying down to the surface of the water and foraging for fish like modern seabirds do. As a seafaring pterosaur, it had exceptionally long wings (even longer than those of the later Pteranodon), and thus was a similarly exceptional soarer, exploiting wind currents off the ocean surface to travel long distances without flapping its wings; similarly to Pteranodon, it may have also been capable of taking off from the surface of the water, as it may have directly hunted for food in the seas. Tropeognathus had 2 rounded, keel-like crests situated on the tip of its beak, with its upper beak having a larger crest than its lower one. It is theorized that these crests were used to stabilize it snout as it dove into the water; however, seeing as these crests were larger in males than they were in females, it is also very likely that they were used for sexual display (in this case, attracting mates).
In popular culture[]
Tropeognathus was featured in the 4th episode of the 1999 documentary Walking with Dinosaurs, where it is dubbed "Ornithocheirus" and featured as an aerial giant as large as Quetzalcoatlus; this was nowhere near as egregious of an oversizing as the Liopleurodon from the previous episode (as Tropeognathus would have been considerably large in real life), but it was still relatively questionable, having been chosen for spectacle. In the episode itself, an elderly male flies across the globe all the way back to his mating grounds in what is now Spain, and comes across many different creatures, from Tapejara and Iguanodon to Utahraptor and Iberomesornis; when he finally reaches his destination, he is unable to secure an ideal spot for himself in the breeding site, and eventually suffers a tragic death at the hands of starvation, exhaustion, heat stress, and old age.