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Pterosaur skeletons often show considerable fusion. In the skull, the sutures between elements disappeared. In some later pterosaurs, the backbone over the shoulders fused into a structure known as a notarium, which served to stiffen the torso during flight, and provide a stable support for the shoulder blade.
Pterodactylus (from Ancient Greek: πτεροδάκτυλος, romanized: pterodáktylos ' winged finger ' [2]) is a genus of extinct pterosaurs.It is thought to contain only a single species, Pterodactylus antiquus, which was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile and one of the first prehistoric reptiles to ever be discovered.
Pterodactyloidea (derived from the Greek words πτερόν (pterón, for usual ptéryx) "wing", and δάκτυλος (dáktylos) "finger") [2] is one of the two traditional suborders of pterosaurs ("wing lizards"), and contains the most derived members of this group of flying reptiles.
Different phylogenetic analyses found it as a basal pterosauromorph, [4] [5] a non-aphanosaurian, non-pterosaur basal avemetatarsalian, a basal dinosauromorph, [11] or a basal archosauriform. [12] This has resulted in a large gap between the fully aerial pterosaurs and their terrestrial ancestors, as the earliest pterosaurs were already capable ...
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).
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.
Pterosaurs – commonly known as pterodactyls – lived some 225 million years ago, and thrived for more than 100 million years before perishing with the dinosaurs in the extinction at the end of ...
Rhamphorhynchus (/ ˌ r æ m f ə ˈ r ɪ ŋ k ə s /, [1] from Ancient Greek rhamphos meaning "beak" and rhynchus meaning "snout") is a genus of long-tailed pterosaurs in the Jurassic period. . Less specialized than contemporary, short-tailed pterodactyloid pterosaurs such as Pterodactylus, it had a long tail, stiffened with ligaments, which ended in a characteristic soft-tissue tail va