Ctenochasma
Sign in to saveCtenochasma (meaning "comb jaw") is a genus of Late Jurassic ctenochasmatid pterosaur belonging to the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Three species are currently recognized: C. roemeri (named after Friedrich Adolph Roemer), 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.
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Ctenochasma (meaning "comb jaw") is a genus of Late Jurassic ctenochasmatid pterosaur belonging to the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Three species are currently recognized: C. roemeri (named after Friedrich Adolph Roemer), 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.
==History== thumb|left|Fossil specimen of a young juvenile C. elegans The name Ctenochasma was coined by the German paleontologist Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1851, based on a single lower jaw full of closely packed teeth which he gave the species name Ctenochasma roemeri. Von Meyer did not consider the specimen to belong to a pterosaur; instead, he compared it to Gnathosaurus, which at that time was considered to be a crocodilian. A second species, C. gracile, was named by Oppel in 1862 based on a fragmentary skull.