Ceoptera

Ceoptera 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 few pterosaur skeletons known from the Middle Jurassic, its discovery contributed to understanding the early diversification of the group. Belonging to Darwinoptera, a clade 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.