Laopteryx is the name assigned to a pterosaur (flying reptile) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, United States; it was originally thought to be a bird.

Only a century later would another possible Archaeopteryx - type bird be described from North America: Palaeopteryx, also from the Upper Jurassic of the US.

The fossil record of Mesozoic birds mainly consists of Eurasian rather than American Laurasian forms.

There were some indications it belonged to the Pterodactyloidea but Ostrom, in view of the lack of information, limited his determination to a more general Pterosauria incertae sedis.

[3] The name is also regarded as a nomen dubium, because the fragmentary remains are not sufficiently diagnostic to refer future other fossils to it.