Campylognathoides is an extinct genus of pterosaur discovered in the Württemberg Lias deposits (dated to the early Toarcian age[1]) of Germany; this first specimen however, consisted only of wing fragments.

It was based on a fossil, holotype GPIT 9533, consisting of some wing bones, found on the Wittberg near Metzingen in layers dating from the early Toarcian, about 180 million years old.

Quenstedt thought he had identified long metacarpals in the wing, concluding that the new species was therefore not belonging to more basal genera, like the long-tailed Rhamphorhynchus.

In 1901 Plieninger for the first time studied P. liasicus and discovered that Quenstedt had mistaken the, in reality short, metacarpal, for a coracoid, meaning it was a basal pterosaur.

However, in 1925 Swedish researcher Carl Wiman, studying specimen UUPM R157, concluded that a fundamental morphological difference could distinguish the two species: C. zitteli has a proportionally much longer wing.

Provisionally Padian kept distinguishing two species, but moved two specimens to C. zitteli: SMNS 51100 and GPIT 24470, because of their larger size and morphological similarities.

[12] Compared to its contemporary from the same layers Dorygnathus, the snout on this genus is relatively short, though the skull is still in general elongated, be it much lighter built.

The large eye sockets, placed low in the skull above a narrow jugal, have caused some researchers to speculate that Campylognathoides had especially acute vision, or possibly even a nocturnal lifestyle.

They are conical and recurved but have a broad base with the point bevelled off from the inside forming a sharp and strong cutting surface.

This pelvis, BSP 1985 I 87, proved to be scientifically significant because the hip socket was according to Peter Wellnhofer in an upward lateral position, preventing the animal from being able to orient its legs erectly like in dinosaurs, birds and mammals.

As this suborder is a paraphyletic assemblage of not specially related basal pterosaurs, this classification merely states the negative fact that it was not a pterodactyloid.

[21] In 2010 an analysis was published by Brian Andres showing that Eudimorphodon together with Austriadactylus formed a very basal clade, leaving Campylognathoides as the only known member of the Campylognathoididae.

[9] Other recent phylogenetic analyses confirm these results, and suggest that Campylognathoides is more derived than all Triassic-aged pterosaurs, as well as the Early Jurassic Dimorphodon and Parapsicephalus.

[26] Direct dietary evidence based on gut contents suggests that Campylognathoides fed on a belemnoid cephalopod Clarkeiteuthis conocauda, indicating that it had a teuthophagous diet.