It contains a single known species, Preondactylus buffarinii, which was discovered by Nando Buffarini in 1982 at the Forni Dolostone near Udine in the Preone valley of the Italian Alps.

[4] When Buffarini first discovered Preondactylus, the thin slab of bituminous, dolomitic limestone containing the fossil was accidentally broken into pieces while being extracted.

All that was left was a negative imprint on the stone, of which a silicon rubber cast was made to allow for subsequent study of the otherwise lost remains.

The second specimen appears to have been preserved in the gastric pellet of a predatory fish, which had consumed the pterosaur and vomited up the indigestible pieces that would later fossilize.

[6] Preondactylus buffarinii Austriadactylus cristatus Peteinosaurus zambellii Raeticodactylus filisurensis Caviramus schesaplanensis Arcticodactylus cromptonellus Carniadactylus rosenfeldi Eudimorphodon ranzii