Dendrorhynchoides: a pterosaur and a false tail

Dendrorhynchoides curvidentatus was a small anurognathid pterosaur from Jurassic China. Its history includes an unusual complication: the type slab was altered with a false long tail, initially obscuring the animal's proportions. Later preparation and a second skeleton showed that the added tail was not genuine, while also confirming that the living pterosaur did have a tail of its own. The genus belongs in the pterosaur catalogue as a reminder that specimen history matters alongside anatomy.

Quick facts

The false tail on the type slab

The type specimen, GMV 2128, was published in 1998 under the name Dendrorhynchus curvidentatus. That genus name was already used for an insect, so the pterosaur received the replacement name Dendrorhynchoides. The specimen's long tail made its classification difficult because anurognathids were generally understood to have short tails.

Later examination found that part of the tail was assembled from unrelated bones and filler. Imaging and renewed preparation separated the false extension from the authentic fossil. This correction did not make the entire slab a forgery. The skull, vertebral column, limbs and wing bones remain genuine fossil material.

A second specimen described in 2012 preserves a sequence of roughly fifteen tail vertebrae. It confirms that the animal was not tailless, but the natural tail was not the long extension on the type slab. The added bones had exaggerated its length and changed the silhouette.

The second skeleton is an independent check on anatomy, not simply a more complete version of the first individual. Together, the specimens support a short-bodied anurognathid with a real but moderate tail. They do not provide a full growth series or every detail of the soft tissues.

Broad head and likely prey

The skull was short and wide, with large eye sockets. Small recurved teeth line the jaws. Such a broad mouth and tooth arrangement fit the capture of insects, particularly prey taken in flight, but no stomach contents directly identify an insect meal. Aerial insect hunting is a reasonable inference rather than an observed behaviour.

The large eye sockets have prompted suggestions of activity in dim light. Eye size alone cannot establish night vision, and the fossils do not record a daily schedule. Hunting at dusk, in darkness or during daylight should not be written as a fact.

Other anurognathids provide comparisons for head and wing proportions. The Bavarian Anurognathus also had a broad head and large eyes, while Jurassic pterosaurs such as Rhamphorhynchus had much longer jaws. These differences show that pterosaur feeding shapes varied; they do not prove identical ecology among relatives.

Age, locality and preservation

The specimens come from the Tiaojishan Formation of north-eastern China, dated to the Middle or Late Jurassic in the source literature. Fine sediments in the region preserve small pterosaur bones that would be easy to lose in coarser deposits. The fossils are compressed, so the apparent width and proportions of the skull can be affected by burial.

Small body size and delicate bones are directly supported by the specimens, although the exact wingspan is difficult to state because the tips of the elongated wing finger are incomplete. A precise number would imply more certainty than the preserved bones allow.

What a reconstruction can show

The short broad skull, large eye sockets, small teeth and corrected tail proportions are grounded in fossil material. The false extension should never be copied as though it belonged to the animal. A reconstruction may use related anurognathids to fill gaps, but should keep borrowed details distinct from what GMV 2128 preserves.

Colour, exact body covering, flight performance, insect species and hunting manoeuvres are not directly known. The setting may evoke Jurassic forests of north-eastern China, but a particular branch, time of day or feeding scene is artistic. The evidence story is both anatomical and historical: a genuine pterosaur fossil was misrepresented in part, and another specimen helped restore the more accurate outline.