Ceoptera

Ceoptera
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic (Bathonian),
Holotype of Ceoptera
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Pterosauria
Clade: Darwinoptera
Genus: Ceoptera
Martin-Silverstone et al., 2024
Type species
Ceoptera evansae
Martin-Silverstone et al., 2024

Ceoptera (meaning "mist wing") is an extinct genus of darwinopteran pterosaur from the Middle Jurassic Kilmaluag Formation of Scotland. The genus contains a single species, C. evansae, known from a partial skeleton discovered in 2006 and named in 2024. It is the only pterosaur from the Kilmaluag Formation and the second pterosaur named from Scotland, after Dearc in 2022. As one of the only pterosaur skeletons known from the Middle Jurassic, its discovery contributed to understanding the early diversification of the group. Belonging to the group Darwinoptera, a group intermediate between early rhamphorhynchoid and later pterodactyloid pterosaurs, it would have been a small animal with a large head and long tail. It is distinguished from all other pterosaurs by two traits; the large size of a wavy flange on its coracoid and a prominent depression on the back extension of the ilium. It would have lived in a low-salinity lagoon ecosystem with wet and dry seasons.