Nipponopterus
| Nipponopterus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, | |
|---|---|
| Skeletal reconstruction | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Family: | †Azhdarchidae |
| Subfamily: | †Quetzalcoatlinae |
| Genus: | †Nipponopterus Zhou et al., 2025 |
| Species: | †N. mifunensis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Nipponopterus mifunensis Zhou et al., 2025 | |
Nipponopterus (meaning "Nippon wing") is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Turonian and Coniacian ages of the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Japan. Its remains, which consist of a partial cervical (neck) vertebra, were found in the Mifune Group, located in the Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyūshū. It was made the holotype specimen of the genus and type species Nipponopterus mifunensis, named and described by paleontologist Xuanyu Zhou and colleagues in 2025. Nipponopterus represents the first pterosaur to be named from Japan.
Morphologically, Nipponopterus is similar to the pterosaur nicknamed "Burkhant azhdarchid" from Mongolia. Both are estimated to have had a wingspan measuring around 3 to 3.5 m (9 ft 10 in to 11 ft 6 in) when fully grown. In its description, Nipponopterus was assigned to the clade Quetzalcoatlinae within the family Azhdarchidae, as the sister taxon of the already mentioned "Burkhant azhdarchid".