Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of early monofenestratan pterosaur based on a nearly complete and well-preserved fossil skeleton discovered in Bavaria, Germany.
The holotype specimen of Laueropterus vitriolus seen under natural light. Image credit: D.W.E. Hone, doi: 10.7717/peerj.21204.
Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to achieve powered flight, appearing around 210 million years ago and eventually diversifying into forms ranging from sparrow-sized flyers to giant animals with wingspans rivaling small aircraft.
The newly described species belonged to a group of early pterosaurs known as monofenestratans.
Named Laueropterus vitriolus, it had a wingspan of roughly 1 m (3.3 feet), making it one of the largest members of this transitional group yet found.
“The early monofenestratans are a relatively new discovery in pterosaur evolution first being recognized in 2010,” said study author Dr. David Hone, a reader in zoology at Queen Mary University of London.
“Various analyses have recovered these taxa as both a clade and grade between the non-monofenetratans and the pterodactyloids.”
“Some of the most derived of these taxa have been named as pterodactyliforms and represent clade of derived monofenestratans and the pterodactyloids.”
The skeleton of Laueropterus vitriolus was found around 2007 in the Schaudiberg quarry of the Mörnsheim Formation.
The fossil is between 150 and 143 million years old (Late Jurassic epoch), and includes much of the skull, jaws, vertebral column and wings.
“The specimen is preserved on a thick slab of limestone that measures roughly 60 cm by 45 cm (2 feet by 1.5 feet),” Dr. Hone said.
“The slab is mostly gray in color but with thick white bars that run perpendicular to one another and cross in places.”
“The pterosaur is generally very well preserved and undistorted, and thin elements such as the sternal plates clearly show the outlines of elements beneath them.”
Laueropterus vitriolus possessed a mix of primitive and more advanced features, including a large skull with a single opening combining the nostril and antorbital fenestra — a hallmark of monofenestratan pterosaurs — but also relatively short wing bones more typical of earlier forms.
“Laueropterus vitriolus marks the fourth non-pterodactyloid monofenestratan pterosaur from the Mühlheim locality alongside Skiphosoura, Makrodactylus, and the ‘Rhamphodactylus’,” Dr. Hone said.
“The only other record of this grade in the region is Propterodactylus, in the much older Painten locality, so these are not uniquely present in more recent beds, but they are clearly much more common here.”
“Hundreds of pterosaur fossils have been recovered from the traditional Solnhofen beds to yield only Propterodactylus, but with four specimens of non-pterodactyloid monofenestratan in Mühlheim of perhaps less than a dozen pterosaurs that have been recovered this is very notable presence.”
The findings were published online on May 11 in the journal PeerJ.
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D.W.E. Hone. 2026. A new early monofenestratan pterosaur from the Mörnsheim Formation of southern Germany. PeerJ 14: e21204; doi: 10.7717/peerj.21204
