The first discovered species was named Pterodactylus antiquus, the genus name stemming from the Greek words for “wing finger.” (Although this species and many discovered soon after were commonly referred to as pterodactyls, that term officially applies only to this species and a small group of related species within the broader pterosaur lineage.) Unlike in bats, whose wing membranes are stretched between four elongated fingers of the hand, a pterosaur’s wing is supported by only one hyperelongated finger, a hallmark that helps distinguish pterosaurs from other creatures. But soon, experts settled on the fact that pterosaurs were flying reptiles, distinct from dinosaurs. One scientist proposed they belonged to a weird sea creature, and another thought they represented a transitional form between birds and bats. Scientists didn’t quite know what to make of the fossils. Pterosaur fossils were first unearthed in the late 1700s - coincidentally, from the same limestone formation in Germany that later yielded the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx.
In fact, the largest animal that ever took flight - an iconic species discovered more than half a century ago but only recently described in great detail - was a pterosaur.
“Some pterosaurs looked like creatures from your nightmares,” says Brian Andres, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Sheffield in England.ĭuring their lengthy reign of the skies, pterosaurs ranged in size from creatures that could sit in the palm of your hand to soaring behemoths with wingspans that rivaled those of an F-16 fighter jet. Some grew bizarre crests atop their heads, while others sported mouths full of teeth that projected threateningly at various angles. They eventually occupied ecosystems worldwide and consumed a wide variety of prey - getting bigger and spreading farther earlier than previously thought, recent studies reveal. “We don’t have any properly transitional fossils for pterosaurs, or at least ones that we recognize,” says Matthew Baron, a freelance vertebrate paleontologist.ĭespite the gap in the early fossil record, recent research offers clues to who pterosaurs’ earliest cousins were and what they looked like, and how pterosaurs evolved from small, flitting creatures into an incredibly varied group. But how pterosaurs took to the air in the first place remains a big mystery.
What caused pterosaurs’ demise is clear: The same asteroid that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs about 66 million years ago also took them out - along with more than 75 percent of all life on Earth ( SN: 7/4/20 & 7/18/20, p.
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