The Anurognathidae were a group of small pterosaurs, with short tails or tailless, that lived in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 during the Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 and early Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 periods. Four genera are known: Anurognathus

Anurognathus

Anurognathus is a genus of small pterosaur that lived approximately 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic Period ....

, from the Late Jurassic

Late Jurassic

The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago , which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age...

 of Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Jeholopterus

Jeholopterus

Jeholopterus was a small anurognathid pterosaur from the Daohugou Beds of northeastern China , between 168 and 152 million years ago), preserved with hair and skin remains.-Naming:...

, from the Middle

Middle Jurassic

The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from 176-161 million years ago. In European lithostratigraphy, rocks of this Middle Jurassic age are called the Dogger....

 or Late Jurassic of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Dendrorhynchoides

Dendrorhynchoides

Dendrorhynchoides was a genus of anurognathid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation, near Beipiao, Chaoyang, Liaoning, China...

, from the Early Cretaceous

Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...

 of China, and Batrachognathus

Batrachognathus

Batrachognathus is an extinct genus of "rhamphorhynchoid" pterosaur from the Late Jurassic Karabastau Svita of the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan....

, from the Late Jurassic of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

. Bennett (2007) claimed that the holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 of Mesadactylus

Mesadactylus

Mesadactylus is an extinct genus of pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, USA....

, BYU 2024, a synsacrum

Synsacrum

The synsacrum is a skeletal structure, mainly described in birds and dinosaurs, in which the sacrum is extended by incorporation of additional fused or partially-fused caudal or lumbar vertebrae. The ilium of the pelvis is attached to the synsacrum and, in some species, may also be fused to it...

, belonged to an Anurognathid. Mesadactylus

Mesadactylus

Mesadactylus is an extinct genus of pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, USA....

is from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation

Morrison Formation

The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

 of the USA. Indeterminate Anurognathid remains have also been reported from the Middle Jurassic Bakhar Svita

Bakhar Svita

The Bakhar Svita is a geological formation in Mongolia whose strata date back to the Middle Jurassic. Pterosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation....

 of Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

.

A family Anurognathidae was named in 1928 by Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás

Franz Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvás

Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás was a Hungarian-born aristocrat, adventurer, scholar, and paleontologist...

 (as the subfamily Anurognathinae) with Anurognathus

Anurognathus

Anurognathus is a genus of small pterosaur that lived approximately 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic Period ....

as the type genus

Type genus

In biological classification, a type genus is a representative genus, as with regard to a biological family. The term and concept is used much more often and much more formally in zoology than it is in botany, and the definition is dependent on the nomenclatural Code that applies:* In zoological...

. The family name Anurognathidae was first used by Oskar Kuhn

Oskar Kuhn

Oskar Kuhn was a German palaeontologist.-Life and career:Kuhn was educated in Dinkelsbühl and Bamberg and then studied natural science, specialising in geology and paleontology, at the University of Munich, from which he received his D. Phil...

 in 1967. Both Alexander Kellner

Alexander Kellner

Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner is a Liechtensteinian/Brazilian paleontologist, a leading expert in the field of the study of pterosaurs....

 and David Unwin in 2003 defined the group as a node clade: the last common ancestor of Anurognathus and Batrachognathus and all its descendants.

The phylogeny of the Anurognathidae is uncertain. Some analyses, as those of Kellner, place them very basal in the pterosaur tree. However, they do have some characteristics in common with the derived Pterodactyloidea

Pterodactyloidea

Pterodactyloidea forms one of the two suborders of pterosaurs , and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles...

, such as the short and fused tail bones. In 2010 an analysis by Brian Andres indicated the Anurognathidae and the Pterodactyloidea were sister taxa. This conforms better to the fossil record because no early anurognathids are known and would require a ghost lineage

Ghost lineage

A ghost lineage is a phylogenetic lineage that is inferred to exist but has no fossil record....

of over sixty million years.