Aurorazhdarcho is an extinct genus of ctenochasmatoid pterosaur known from the Late Jurassic period (early Tithonian stage) of what is now Bavaria, southern Germany.

The holotype specimen of P. micronyx, also known as the "Pester Exemplar", was originally part of the private fossil collection held by Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria.

Evidence suggest that the Pester Exemplar was unearthed at some point between 1757, when Maria Anna was recovering from serious cases of pneumonia and tuberculosis, after which she began collecting fossils, and 1779, when the specimen was first studied by scientists.

Because of this, and the unusual (and at the time totally unknown) anatomy of pterosaurs, the specimen was originally misidentified as a decapod crustacean when it was first studied by Ignaz von Born, a prominent Enlightenment naturalist.

[2] In 1999, amateur paleontologist Peter Kaszmekat uncovered a fossil of a pterosaur in the Blumenberg Quarry, 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) northwest of Eichstätt, in layers of the Solnhofen limestone.

Based on the specimen, the type species Aurorazhdarcho primordius was named and described by Eberhard Frey, Christian A. Meyer and Helmut Tischlinger in 2011.

[1] The holotype of Aurorazhdarcho, NMB Sh 110, was found in the Upper Eichstätt Formation dating to the early Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic, 150 million years ago.

However, the head and neck are present as impressions, movement of these elements on the bottom of the lagoon the carcass descended on leaving a natural mould covered by organic remains in the form of calcium phosphate flakes made visible by the UV-photography of Tischlinger.

That the head and neck are now absent is explained by the animal being killed by a partially failed attack by a predator, almost ripping off these parts, after which the body quickly sank.

[1] Bennett in 2013, based on the analysis of all known specimens of Aurorazhdarcho micronyx and taking its short neck and pedal morphology into account, considered this species to be a ctenochasmatid.