COLOBORHYNCHUS

Coloborhynchus clavirostris

Etymology: Key-snouted maimed beak

Nickname: "Colobor"

Classification: Pterosauria, Anhangueridae

Diet: Carnivore

Size: 2.5 meters of wingspan

Provenance: Wealden Group, United Kingdom - Early Cretaceous, Berriasian-Valanginian stage, 140 - 136 million years ago

Movie appearances: Jurassic World (2015); Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

Coloborhynchus clavirostris (meaning "key-snouted maimed beak") was an anhanguerid pterosaur that hailed from the early Cretaceous of England, being one of the oldest named pterosaur species.

Coloborhynchus had an elongated, but robust, skull. Like all pterosaurs, it had pycnofibers (the specific designation for pterosaurian feathers) being thicker in the neck and body regions, though some individuals have a naked neck instead.

Coloborhynchus initially coexisted in the Jurassic World aviary with Arambourgiania, demonstrating aggressiveness towards the Indominus rex, when it broke into their enclosure. They surprisingly demonstrate protective parental behavior towards their eggs, defending their nesting grounds. Coloborhynchus are usually piscivorous, gleaning fish from the surface, and feeding them safely either in the air or on land.

Although genes of Coloborhynchus were already in possession by InGen when Jurassic Park was around, it was only with Isla Nublar's Jurassic World that these pterosaurs were resurrected by the hundreds, being placed in an aviary to coexist with the Arambourgiania. However, the Indominus rex broke into the aviary, releasing Coloborhynchus and Arambourgiania to the park, wrecking havoc. One Coloborhynchus attacked Owen Grady, but he was saved by Claire Dearing who shot the pterosaur. After the collapse of Jurassic World, the Coloborhynchus were left to roam the island, where they formed large flocks of hundreds. Coloborhynchus demonstrated hunting behavior against some human survivors in Isla Nublar. This would be the case of the Nublar Six, who encountered Coloborhynchus that attacked them. These were shown to hunt in flocks. Coloborhynchus seem to show disinterest in chasing down prey in adverse atmospheric conditions. Coloborhynchus were captured from Isla Nublar and introduced into Mantah Corp's island. There they could be found in the island's forest biome. There Coloborhynchus keep demonstrating aggressive behavior to humans. Coloborhynchus are shown to preferentially gather in watering holes or other humid places. These pterosaurs have also shown to cooperate with other species, shown defending a Spinosaurus from a pack of aggressive Deinonychus. Coloborhynchus has also been observed defending a Carnotaurus from a Tyrannosaurus rex, indicating that these pterosaurs see benefit in defending a predator that could potentially provide them a meal. Despite Coloborhynchus being capable of coexisting with Arambourgiania, conflicts between both species are observed. In Mantah Corp, Coloborhynchus are subjected to illegal and inhumane experiments.

Up until 2018, Coloborhynchus remained alive in Isla Nublar. Footage of their attack in Isla Nublar, back in 2015, remained as the most popular visual evidence of the Jurassic World collapse at the time. Coloborhynchus did use their oceanic flight travel to expand their range to mainland America, before and after the eruption of Mount Sibo, and they have since been observable as feral animals during the aftermath of the dinosaur release in Lockwood Manor, in 2018.

Coloborhynchus have been subjected to the illegal dinosaur market; in Malta, some feral Coloborhynchus could be observed in 2022, concurrent with the collapse of Biosyn. Some of these Coloborhynchus have since been documented attacking humans.

FILM vs. REALITY

DISCLAIMER: Coloborhynchus does not show up in the Jurassic Park films, and it is instead, here, meant to be a plausible substitute to the films' Dimorphodon. The film Dimorphodon differs dramatically from its real life counterpart. Firstly, the real life Dimorphodon was much smaller than its fictional counterpart, just around the size of a pigeon, and it was a generalist carnivore of small terrestrial prey, and wouldn't hunt prey fastly in the sky or gang upon to hunt large animals. The tail of Dimorphodon is shown as a flexible muscular organ in the films, but the real life one had it as a very stiffened stabilizing organ instead. However both iterations are correct in the orientation of the weight-bearing fingers, which were forward-facing not rearward-facing as in more derived pterosaurs. The limbs of Dimorphodon are also correctly portrayed as somewhat splayed.

Coloborhynchus differs from the real life Dimorphodon for having a short tail, having erect limbs, and overall for being larger and preying on larger prey, including fish and bigger land vertebrates. Unlike the movie's Dimorphodon, which only has filaments on parts of the neck and in the back, it would be expected for Coloborhynchus and other pterosaurs, broadly, to have filaments covering all of the torso. Coloborhynchus would have more likely displayed behaviors more consistent with the film's iteration of Dimorphodon than their real life counterpart, including the abbility of oceanic travel (consistent with anhanguerids but unlike the more inland dwelling dimorphodontids), adaptation for both piscivory and carnivory, capacity to inhabit both inland and wetland regions, and be effective in both terrestrial, aerial and aquatic pursuit, and also perhaps too in terms of egg rearing (as hypothesized for some pteranodontoids).