Ornithocheirus was a large pterosaur with a long slender skull and often a bony crest on its snout. It had sharp teeth set in a long tapering jaw designed for catching fish. At the beginning of the Cretaceous period, short-tailed pterosaurs like Ornithocheirus replaced the earlier long-tailed varieties. They also started to grow much larger.

The first fossils of Ornithocheirus were found in the Wealden Formation in Sussex , England in 1827. They were not formally described as Ornithocheirus until 1869. Despite the fact that only partial remains have been discovered, 36 species have been identified from the assortment of over 1000 bones. Most of these have come from the Cambridge Greensand which is a Late Cretaceous rock unit found near Cambridge , England .

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