page_title: Anhanguera (pterosaur)
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Anhanguera (pterosaur) / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Size of Anhangurea blittersdorffi in flying and standing postures compared with a human. Credit Matt Martyniuk.
context_page_description: Anhanguera is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Early Cretaceous Romualdo Formation of Brazil. This pterosaur is closely related to Ornithocheirus, but belongs in the family Anhangueridae. The generic name comes from the tupi words añanga, meaning "spirit protector of the animals" + wera "bygone".
context_section_description: Anhanguera was a fish-eating animal with a wingspan of about 4.6 metres (15 ft). Like many other ornithocheirids, Anhanguera had rounded crests at front of its upper and lower jaws, which were filled with angled, conical but curved teeth of various sizes and orientations. Like many of its relatives, the jaws were tapered in width, but expanded into a broad, spoon-shaped rosette at the tip. It is distinguished from its relatives by subtle differences in the crest and teeth: unlike its close relatives Coloborhynchus and Ornithocheirus, the crest on the upper jaw of Anhanguera did not begin at the tip of the snout, but was set farther back on the skull. Like many ornithocheiroids, (most notably the pteranodonts but also in ornithocheirids such as Ludodactylus) Anhanguera had an additional crest protruding from the back of the skull. However, it was reduced to a small, blunt projection in these animals.
   
  A study in 2003 showed that Anhanguera held its head at an angle to the ground due to its inner ear structure, which helped the animal detect its balance. Anhanguera had bony rings in their eye sockets, called sclerotic rings. These disks may have provided support to the pterosaur's eyes. Sclerotic rings are found in some extant species of vertebrates. For example, modern day birds have sclerotic rings.
  The dubious species, A. araripensis, has been described as similar in skull anatomy to other species of Anhanguera, and possibly Coloborhynchus, and the species is placed in either of these genera by various researchers. Like species referred to Coloborhynchus, the snout tip was blunt and bore two forward-projecting teeth that emerged higher on the jaw than the rest of the tooth row. As in most other ornithocheirids, the species bore a large, rounded crest at the tip of the jaws. Like Coloborhynchus species, and unlike the type species of Anhanguera, the crest of A. araripensis emerged from the very tip of the blunted jaws, rather than further back on the jaw. However, unlike Coloborhynchus, A. araripensis lacked a dent or depression in the blunted jaw tip, and the teeth appear to have been smaller and more uniform in size.
caption: Size of A. blittersdorffi compared to a human
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