Anurognatus lived at the end of the Jurassic period in what is now Germany. It was one of the smallest pterosaurs: its wingspan was only 35 cm, and the mass was about 40 grams. They were small animals with short and wide heads, huge eyes and small sharp teeth. The short tails of anurognathids probably gave them more maneuverability when hunting small, fast prey. Large eyes suggest that these pterosaurs hunted at dusk and were nocturnal predators, preying on insects in the gloomy thicket of the prehistoric forest. The genus was described by Ludwig Döderlein in 1923 on the basis of a find in a limestone quarry in Bavaria consisting of a relatively complete but destroyed skeleton on a slab.