Anurognathidae is a family of small, short-tailed pterosaurs that lived in Europe, Asia, and possibly North America during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Indeterminate anurognathid remains have also been reported from the Middle Jurassic Bakhar Svita of Mongolia[7][8] and the Early Cretaceous of North Korea.

More recent analyses, which include more fossils and taxa, support this observation and recover the group as substantially more derived than previously thought, but still basal to pterodactyloids.

This conformed better to the fossil record because no early anurognathids were known at the time, and being the basalmost pterosaur clade would require a ghost lineage of over sixty million years.

[13] However, the reassignment of "Dimorphodon weintraubi" to a basal position within Anurognathidae helps fill this gap and suggests this group appeared earlier than previously thought, possibly in the Early Jurassic Period.

[18][19] A response to this study was published in 2020, where it was suggested that the structures seen on the anurognathids were actually a result of the decomposition of aktinofibrils: a type of fibre used to strengthen and stiffen the wing.