Our Pteranodon soars outside the museum entrance, hoping you'll visit.
NAME: Pteranodon
Meaning: Toothless wing
Pronounced: TER-an-O-don
By: Othniel C Marsh in 1876
DIET: Fish, perhaps small land animals
SIZE:
Wingspan: Males to 18 ft (5.6 m); females to 12 ft (3.8 m)
Weight: Weight is unknown, estimates have ranged widely
WHEN IT LIVED: Late Cretaceous, 86 – 84.5 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED: North America, mostly central North America around the Western Interior Seaway. Fossils have been found in Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota
Late Cretaceous North America, showig the Western Interior Seaway.
CLASSIFICATION:
Kingdom Animalia (animals)
Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
Order Pterosauria (flying reptiles)
Suborder Pterodactyloidea (hand-wings)
Family Pteranodontidae
Subfamily Pteranodontinae
Genus Pteranodon
Species: One or two species.
Pteranodon longiceps Marsh 1876
Pteranodon sterbergi Harksen 1966 is not recognized by all paleontologists
FUN FACTS:
Pteranodons may have been covered with fur. This would have acted to smooth the profile of the animal in flight, like feathers smooth the body of birds.
The skull of the original Pteranodon described by O.C. Marsh in 1876, in the Yale Peobody Museum
