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Pteranodon (/ t ə ˈ r æ n ə d ɒ n /; from Ancient Greek: πτερόν, romanized: pteron ' wing ' and ἀνόδων, anodon ' toothless ') [2] [better source needed] is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with P. longiceps having a wingspan of over 6 m (20 ft).
Pteranodon sternbergi is an extinct species of the pteranodontid pterodactyloid pterosaur genus Pteranodon from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America. P. sternbergi was among the largest pterosaurs, with a wingspan of up to 6 metres (20 ft) in males.
Quetzalcoatlus (/ k ɛ t s əl k oʊ ˈ æ t l ə s /) is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous in North America. The type specimen, recovered in 1971 from the Javelina Formation of Texas, United States, consists of several wing fragments and was described as Quetzalcoatlus northropi in 1975 by Douglas Lawson.
Skeletal reconstruction of a quadrupedally launching Pteranodon longiceps. Another issue that has been difficult to understand is how they took off. Earlier suggestions were that pterosaurs were largely cold-blooded gliding animals, deriving warmth from the environment like modern lizards, rather than burning calories.
Alexander Kellner, for example, named several additional species for specimens previously classified as Pteranodon, and placed P. sternbergi in a distinct genus, Geosternbergia. Kellner re-defined Pteranodontidae as the most recent common ancestor of Pteranodon longiceps , Geosternbergia sternbergi and Dawndraco kanzai , and all of its descendants.
In 1928, Charles Gilmore named a new species of Pteranodon: P. oregonensis.A humerus (holotype MPUC V.126713), two fused dorsal vertebrae and the broken-off end of some joint bone had been unearthed from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian stage) beds of the Hudspeth Formation in Wheeler County, Oregon, United States, to which the specific epithet refers.
Pteranodontoidea (or pteranodontoids, from Greek meaning "toothless wings") is an extinct clade of ornithocheiroid pterosaurs from the Early to Late Cretaceous (early Valanginian to late Maastrichtian stages) of Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. [1]
Pteranodon skeleton. A toothless Late Cretaceous pterosaur, it was similar to Pelagornis in size and proportions and possibly in feeding habits.. Unlike the true teeth of Mesozoic stem-birds like Archaeopteryx or Ichthyornis, the pseudoteeth of the pelagornithids do not seem to have had serrated or otherwise specialized cutting edges, and were useful to hold prey for swallowing whole rather ...