Rhamphorhynchus (meaning “beak snout”) is a genus of long-tailed pterosaur from the Late Jurassic period, living approximately 165 to 145 million years ago in what is now Europe, with fossils found primarily in the famous Solnhofen Limestone of Bavaria, Germany, along with possible specimens from England, Portugal, Spain, and Tanzania. One of the largest pterosaurs from Late Jurassic Europe, Rhamphorhynchus had an average adult wingspan of just under six feet, with some specimens even preserving soft tissue imprints of the wings and tail. Its name refers to its distinctive long narrow beak lined with needle-like forward-pointing teeth, well adapted for snatching fish from the water surface.

Rhamphorhynchus is classified as a rhamphorhynchid, the group of long-tailed pterosaurs that predated the more familiar short-tailed pterodactyloids. Less specialized than contemporary short-tailed pterodactyloids such as Pterodactylus, it had a long tail stiffened with ligaments, which ended in a characteristic diamond-shaped vane that served as a rudder during flight. Its jaws housed needle-like teeth angled forward, functioning like a fish trap. It probably hunted like modern shearwaters, looking into the water and quickly diving to catch prey when it spotted it. The Solnhofen fossils are remarkable in their preservation quality: one extraordinary specimen even shows a Rhamphorhynchus that had been seized by a large fish called Aspidorhynchus while fishing near the water surface, with both predator and prey preserved together in a single slab.