Holotype snout tip of
C. cuvieri shown from the right side and below
Cimoliopterus is a
genus of
pterosaur that lived during the
Late Cretaceous in what is now
England and the
United States. The first known specimen, consisting of the front part of a snout including part of a crest, was discovered in the
Grey Chalk Subgroup of
Kent, England, and described as the new species
Pterodactylus cuvieri in 1851. The
specific name cuvieri honours the palaeontologist
George Cuvier, whereas the genus
Pterodactylus was then used for many pterosaur species that are not thought to be closely related today. It was among the first pterosaurs to be depicted as sculptures, in
Crystal Palace Park in the 1850s. The species was subsequently assigned to various other genera, including
Ornithocheirus and
Anhanguera. In 2013, the species was moved to a new genus, as
Cimoliopterus cuvieri; the generic name
Cimoliopterus is derived from the Greek words for "chalk" and "wing". Other specimens and species have also been assigned to or
synonymised with the species with various levels of certainty. In 2015, a snout discovered in the
Britton Formation of
Texas, US, was named as a new species in the genus,
C. dunni; the specific name honours its collector, Brent Dunn.
C. cuvieri is estimated to have had a wingspan of 3.5 metres (11 ft), and
C. dunni is thought to have been similar to
C. cuvieri in size.
Cimoliopterus can be distinguished from related pterosaurs in features such as having a
premaxillary crest that begins hindward on the snout, in having a ridge on the palate that extends forwards until the third pair of
tooth sockets, and in the spacing and proportions of the tooth sockets. Unlike similar pterosaurs, the tip of the snout is only subtly expanded to the sides.
C. cuvieri and
C. dunni differ from each other in various details in the configuration of these features; for example, the crest of
C. cuvieri begins by the seventh tooth socket, whereas that of
C. dunni begins at the fourth. More completely known related genera were fairly large pterosaurs, with proportionally large skulls, long jaws and tooth-rows, often with large, rounded crests at the front of the jaws. The teeth at the front of the jaws were large and recurved; further back, the teeth were smaller, slightly recurved, and well-spaced. As pterosaurs,
Cimoliopterus would have been covered in
pycnofibres (hair-like filaments), and had extensive
wing-membranes, which were distended by long wing-fingers. (
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