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Rhamphorhyncus was a small genus toothed-pterosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period about 145 million years ago. The lived mainly near the mainland catching insects. R. muensteri was the known species of its kind and was described by Georg August Goldfuss in 1831.
Physical Description[]
Like most pterosaurs, it had the typical long slender body, large wings and a beak. Rhamphorhyncus was generally a small pterosaur and grew to be about 1.26 meters (4.1 ft) from head to tail while their wingspans grew about 1.81 meters (5.9 ft). The most distinctive features of Rhamphorhyncus from other early pterosaurs was its upward beak lined with pick-like teeth and a long stiff tail which ended with a diamond-shaped vane. This tail supported Rhamphorhyncus possibly as a steering Rutter to help fly in direction of fast prey with the vane helping with better support. The skull of Rhamphorynchus measured was roughly 2 feet in length. Its jaws ended with sharp curved beak-like tips and housed 20 pick-like teeth positioned upward. When its jaws closed the teeth intermeshed, which has led research to suggest it ate fish, but may have suited for insects as well, as it might have settled in more inland. The Rhamphorynchus wings were large and capable of flight—as with most pterosaurs like the later Pteranodon—, the wings were made of special membranes which were held by the animals long thin arms, which had three claws and an extended digit. Rhamphorynchus used these its large wings and thin tail to help it move swiftly in air to catch insects and to escape predators such as Allosaurus. Imprints of Rhamphorhyncus have shown it could stand upright and walk both as quadruped and a biped. This has helped science explain on how smaller pterosaurs took off in filght, as they would run and then take off much like airplanes would do in a runway.
Gameplay[]
To this date, the Rhamphorhynchus has only appeared in Dino Crisis 2 and only served as a background creature, they can be encountered several times in certain levels of game, but pose no harm to the player.