Anurognathus Head Study

The anurognathid skull, reconstructed after Bennett, 2007, describes a cranium composed of thin struts and few plates. This causes the skull to be distorted in unusual ways. A new specimen, called the Tischlinger specimen, of Anurognathus ammoni, reveals much more about anurognathid skulls (and for this species). This skull is useful for the following head study.

Left to right:
Bone (rendered in ink); Muscle; Flesh; Integument (all in graphite).

In the bone study, I follow Bennet's description closely. I've made the snout a little more rounded than he did, and the profile of the skull is fairly rounded. I've also clearly separated the maxilla and jugal from their original fairly indistinct relationships (this guy has an apparently VERY long jugal that overlaps portions of the maxilla.

In the muscle study, I've positioned the pterygoideas ventralis muscle perhaps a bit too far anterior in the palate, and I think a second version would correct this. This is because the jaw seems adapted to a perfectly orthan bite, and an anterior ventral pterygoideus would cause the jaw to attempt to move forward while biting, and that seems inconsistent. The palate is a system of delicate rods, which also makes any muscles that attached fairly thin and small.

The integument study is based largely on Jeholopterus ningchengensis, another anurognathid, in that the "fur" or "hair" or pycnofibres that cover the head cover it in its entirety, from around the mouth to the tip of the snout. There is no indication of the whiskers some people, such as Mark Witton, have illustrated in their reconstructions. I am illustrating this animal without said features in order to be minimalistic.

I have also chosen to restore the eye in this one differently than in the others, due in part to the very large scleral ossicles (not shown in the bone reconstruction) and the implication that this animal may have been a evening or crepuscular hunter; cat-like reflective eyes are aesthetic, rather than scientific, in this case, so a reflective eye is shown.