#cuspicephalus

Cuspicephalus scarfi was a wukongopterid pterosaur from Late Jurassic England. It’s name comes from the Latin cuspis for “point” and the Greek κεφαλή for “head”, and its species name is a reference to Gerald Scarfe who was known for caricatures with very pointy noses (including Margaret Thatcher as the “Torydactyl), and who was also the production designer for Disney’s Hercules. Cuspicephalus scarfi basically means “pointed head which could have been designed by Gerald Scarfe.” Looking at this animal you can probably see the resemblance! Cuspicephalus had a very long, angled skull, most of which was occupied by the air pockets in its fenestra. A low bony crest is present, which was likely the base of a much higher soft tissue crest. Like most other Jurassic pterosaurs, it had sharp interlocking teeth, and likely also had a long ornamented tail. Due to its small size and lightly built skull, it probably fed on small land animals like arthropods and worms.

Cuspicephalus scarfi was found in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation. This was a seaside environment and is known for its many fish, turtle, plesiosaur, and icthyosaur fossils. Other pterosaurs have been found here as well, but from later ages than Cuspicephalus. Other archosaurs would have included the stegosaur Dacentrurus, the iguanodontian Cumnoria, the megalosaurid Torvosaurus, and the thalattosuchians Bathysuchus, Cricosaurus, Dakosaurus, Metriorhynchus, Plesiosuchus, and Torvoneustes.

By Joschua Knüppe, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.

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Name: Cuspicephalus scarfi

Name Meaning: Point Head 

First Described: 2013

Described By: Martill & Etches

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Darwinoptera, Wukongopteridae

Cuspicephalus is our first Wukongopterid, a group of pterosaurs more derived than Rhamphorhynchids but less derived than the Pterodacytloids (such as Azhdarchids & Pteranodon, and Pterodactylus itself). They’re from China and the Uk and lived exclusively in the Jurassic, showing a mixture of traits that would be called “primitive” (ie, characteristic of more early-derived pterosaurs) and “advanced” (ie, characteristics of more late-derived pterosaurs). Cuspicephalus itself is known from England, specifically the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset, living about 155.7 to 153 million years ago, in the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic. 

By Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 3.0

It had a very elongate and large skull when compared to the rest of it’s body, with almost half of the skull occupied by a large skull opening. There was also a low and bony crest on the long snout, but it’s uncertain what shape it was in due to damage to the original specimen. It was one of the largest Wukongopterids, with a wingspan of about 1.2 meters long, though it definitely wasn’t one of the largest pterosaurs of the time. The crest was probably used for display. It also had a long tail, like other relatively early-derived pterosaurs. It lived alongside many marine reptiles and ocean life, but it probably ate mainly small land animals. 

Sources:

http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/cuspicephalus.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wukongopteridae

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuspicephalus