Meaning
Key Snout
Wingspan
Up to 6 metres
Classification
Pterosauria Kaup, 1834
Pterodactyloidea Plieninger, 1901
Ornithocheiroidea Seeley, 1891sensuUnwin, 2003
Ornithocheiridae Seeley, 1870
Coloborhynchus Owen, 1874
Locations
Sudmoor Point
A pterodactyloid, Coloborhynchus has no tail, but does have a mouth full of teeth, possible used to catch fish while in flight.
The only known specimen comprises the anterior portion of a pterosaur rostrum with an ‘upturned’ palatal surface displaying the bases of two anteriorly directed teeth broken at the base of the crown.
It is beach worn, having been found on the foreshore among flint beach pebbles. Although the original bone, tooth enamel and dentine is preserved, void space of the internal trabecular bone has become filled with slightly yellowish calcite and coarsely crystalline pyrite. There is also a thin veneer on the external surface of some of the bone.