Pteranodon

A flying reptile, not a dinosaur

Pterosaurs and dinosaurs are two different groups of reptiles. They are closely related, a bit like cousins. [1][3]

To tell them apart, scientists look at the hip, for example. In dinosaurs, the hip socket has a hole right through it. In pterosaurs, it is just a hollow in the bone. [3]

Its wings had no feathers. They were made of thin skin, stretched along a very long fourth finger. [3]

The shape of its wings suggests that it flew a bit like an albatross, gliding for a long time. [1]

A beak, a crest and fish

It had a long toothless beak, like a bird's. On its head, a bony crest pointed backward. The males' crest was much bigger than the females'. [1]

Its crest was probably used mostly for showing off to other Pteranodons. [1]

In its time, a sea covered Kansas. Its fossils are in rocks that formed in this sea. [2]

To fish, it maybe landed on the water. It maybe also dove in, with its wings folded, like some seabirds do. [1]

Its discovery

In 1870 or 1871, American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh finds its first fossils in Kansas. It is the first pterosaur discovered outside Europe. [1]

At first, it is grouped with pterosaurs that had teeth. In 1876, Marsh notices that it has none and gives it its own name: Pteranodon. That same year, Samuel Williston finds the first skull, on the banks of the Smoky Hill River, in Kansas. [1]

Today, more than 1,100 Pteranodon fossils are known. It is the pterosaur with the most fossils found. [2]