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Pterosaurs are also colloquially referred to as pterodactyls, particularly in fiction and journalism. [16] However, technically, pterodactyl may refer to members of the genus Pterodactylus, and more broadly to members of the suborder Pterodactyloidea of the pterosaurs. [17] Pterosaurs had a variety of lifestyles.
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.
Pterodactyloids were the last surviving pterosaurs when the order became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, together with the non-avian dinosaurs and most marine reptiles. "Pterodactyl" is also a common term for pterodactyloid pterosaurs, though it can also be used to refer to Pterodactylus specifically.
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 what is now North America. The first specimen, recovered in 1971 from the Javelina Formation of Texas, United States, consists of several wing fragments.
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).
The largest of non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs as well as the largest Jurassic pterosaur [16] was Dearc, with an estimated wingspan between 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in) and 3.8 m (12 ft). [17] Only a fragmentary rhamphorhynchid specimen from Germany could be larger (184 % the size of the biggest Rhamphorhynchus). [18]
But pterosaurs had massive wingspans that could reach 16.4 to 39.3 feet (5 to 12 meters). “They represent the largest animals with the capacity to fly,” Rosenbach said of the extinct reptiles.
The Rhamphorhynchoidea forms one of the two suborders of pterosaurs and represents an evolutionary grade of primitive members of flying reptiles.This suborder is paraphyletic unlike the Pterodactyloidea, which arose from within the Rhamphorhynchoidea as opposed to a more distant common ancestor.