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
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.
== Discovery and naming == thumb|left|Map of the Isle of Skye, showing the geology of the Kilmaluag Formation as well one of its outcrops. Ceoptera was found near [[Elgol]] In 2006, a set of rocks with protruding fossilized bones was noticed by a team of palaeontologists on Cladach a'Ghlinne, a beach north of Elgol on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Fossils of this site are considered to be part of the Kilmaluag Formation, dated to the Middle Jurassic. The site was administered by the Scottish Natural Heritage as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, disallowing the disturbance of rocks on the clifface, and the land was owned by a private trust. However, permission was granted by both parties for collection of the specimen as it had fallen naturally onto the beach. Care was taken in returning the specimen to the Natural History Museum in London, England as it was very fragile. Preparation, the process of removing the fossils from the surrounding rock (the matrix), proved difficult. The limestone matrix was especially hard, fossils within were very fragile; twelve months of acid preparation were necessary. Many remains were still embedded in the rock after this point, and CT scanning was necessary to visualize and study them.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).