Rhamphinion

Rhamphinion (meaning "beak nape"; Greek rhamphos, "beak" is a common part of "rhamphorhynchoid" names, and the remains of this animal came from the rear of the skull, i.e. "nape" or inion) is a genus of pterosaurs from the Sinemurian-mid Pliensbachian-age Lower Jurassic Kayenta Formation of northeastern Arizona, United States. The type species is R. jenkinsi.

==Discovery and naming== thumb|Life restoration of Rhamphinion with [[Dilophosaurus in the background]] Fossils of Rhamphinion were first discovered in 1978 when an expedition conducted by the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University and the Museum of Northern Arizona led by Farish A. Jenkins Jr. collected several small pterosaur fossils from the sandstone deposits of the Kayenta Formation, dating to the Early Jurassic (188 mya -185 mya) in Coconino County, northern Arizona, USA. The fossils were collected from the lands of the Navajo Nation and are reposited at the Museum of Northern Arizona under catalog number MNA.V.4500. The fossils were fragmentary and all from one individual, consisting of two skull fragments (an occipital and partial jugal), a possible mandible fragment, and an unidentifiable bone impression. In 1981, James M. Clark of the University of Chicago collected a nearly complete fourth wing metacarpal of a pterosaur from the Kayenta Formation strata at the “Airhead West” locality nearby. This metacarpal was the first pterosaur bone found from the Kayenta Formation and may belong to Rhamphinion, but a lack of overlap prevents definitive assignment. Some fragmentary fossils from the Middle Jurassic Taynton Limestone of the United Kingdom were referred to Rhamphinion, but are instead from an indeterminate rhamphorynchid.