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Concept
Pterosaur size
Summary
Pterosaurs included the largest flying animals ever to have lived. They are a clade of prehistoric archosaurian reptiles closely related to dinosaurs. Species among pterosaurs occupied several types of environments, which ranged from aquatic to forested. Below are the lists that comprise the smallest and the largest pterosaurs known .
The smallest known pterosaur is Nemicolopterus with a wingspan of about . The specimen found may be a juvenile or a subadult, however, and adults may have been larger. Anurognathus is another small pterosaur, with a wingspan of and in body mass.
This is a list of pterosaurs with estimated maximum wingspan of more than 5 meters (16 feet):
Hatzegopteryx thambema
Quetzalcoatlus northropi
Cryodrakon boreas
Undescribed specimen from Mongolia
Thanatosdrakon amaru
Arambourgiania philadelphiae
Tropeognathus mesembrinus
Pteranodon longiceps
Thapunngaka shawi
Alanqa saharica
Santanadactylus araripensis
Cearadactylus atrox
The largest of non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs as well as the largest Jurassic pterosaur was Dearc, with an estimated wingspan between and . Only a fragmentary rhamphorhynchid specimen from Germany could be larger (184 % the size of the biggest Rhamphorhynchus). Other huge non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs are Sericipterus, Campylognathoides and Harpactognathus, with the wingspan of , , and , respectively. Middle Jurassic Angustinaripterus had a wingspan of .
Some species of pterosaurs grew to very large sizes and this has implications for their capacity for flight. Many pterosaurs were small but the largest had wingspans which exceeded . The largest of these are estimated to have weighed . For comparison, the wandering albatross has the largest wingspan of living birds at up to but usually weighs less than . This indicates that the largest pterosaurs may have had higher wing loadings than modern birds (depending on wing profile) and this has implications for the manner in which pterosaur flight might differ from that of modern birds.
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