Pteranodon (/tɨˈrænədɒn/; from Greek πτερόν ("wing") and ἀνόδων ("toothless")) is a genus of pterosaurs which included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with wingspans over 6 metres (20 ft). It existed during the late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota with possible fossils in Sweden, England, and Australia. More fossil specimens of Pteranodon have been found than any other pterosaur, with about 1,200 specimens known to science, many of them well preserved with nearly complete skulls and articulated skeletons. It was an important part of the animal community in the Western Interior Seaway.
Pteranodon was not a dinosaur. By definition, all dinosaurs belong to the groups Saurischia and Ornithischia, which exclude pterosaurs. Nevertheless, Pteranodon is frequently featured in dinosaur books and is strongly associated with dinosaurs by the general public.
Description[]
Pteranodon species are extremely well represented in the fossil record, allowing for detailed descriptions of their anatomy and analysis of their life history. Over 1,000 specimens have been identified, though less than half are complete enough to give researchers good information on the anatomy of the animal. Still, this is more fossil material than is known for any other pterosaur, and it includes both male and female specimens of various age groups and, possibly, species.
Size[]
Adult Pteranodon specimens from the two major species can be divided into two distinct size classes. The smaller class of specimens have small, rounded head crests and very wide pelvic canals, even wider than those of the much larger size class. The size of the pelvic canal probably allowed the laying of eggs, indicating that these smaller adults are females. The larger size class, representing male individuals, have narrow hips and very large crests, which were probably for display.
Adult male Pteranodon were among the largest pterosaurs, and were the largest flying animals known until the late 20th Century, when the giant azhdarchid pterosaurs were discovered. The wingspan of an average adult male Pteranodon was 5.6 metres (18 ft). Adult females were much smaller, averaging 3.8 metres (12 ft) in wingspan. The largest specimen of Pteranodon longiceps from the Niobrara Formation measured 6.25 metres (20.5 ft) from wingtip to wingtip. An even larger specimen is known from the Pierre Shale Formation, with a wingspan of 7.25 metres (23.8 ft), though this specimen may belong to the distinct genus and species Geosternbergia maysei. While most specimens are found crushed, enough fossils exist to put together a detailed description of the animal.
Methods used to estimate the weight of large male Pteranodon specimens (those with wingspans of about 7 meters) have been notoriously unreliable, producing a wide range of estimates from as low as 20 kilograms (44 lb) and as high as 93 kilograms (205 lb). In a review of pterosaur size estimates published in 2010, researchers Mark Witton and Mike Habib demonstrated that the latter, largest estimates are almost certainly incorrect given the total volume of a Pteranodon body, and could only be correct if the animal "was principally comprised of aluminum." Witton and Habib considered the methods used by researchers who obtained smaller weight estimates equally flawed. Most have been produced by scaling modern animals such as bats and birds up to Pteranodon size, despite the fact that pterosaurs have vastly different body proportions and soft tissue anatomy from any living animal.
Skull and beak[]
Unlike earlier pterosaurs such as Rhamphorhynchus and Pterodactylus, Pteranodon had toothless beaks, similar to those of modern birds. Pteranodon beaks were made of solid, bony margins that projected from the base of the jaws. The beaks were long, slender, and ended in thin, sharp points. The upper jaw was longer than the lower jaw. The upper jaw was curved upward; while this normally has been attributed only to the upward-curving beak, one specimen (UALVP 24238) has a curvature corresponding with the beak widening towards the tip. While the tip of the beak is not known in this specimen, the level of curvature suggests it would have been extremely long. The unique form of the beak in this specimen lead Alexander Kellner to assign it to a distinct genus, Dawndraco, in 2010.
The most distinctive characteristic of Pteranodon is its cranial crest. These crests consisted of skull bones (frontals) projecting upward and backward from the skull. The size and shape of these crests varied due to a number of factors, including age, sex, and species. Male Pteranodon sternbergi, the older species of the two described to date (and sometimes placed in the distinct genus Geosternbergia), had a more vertical crest with a broad forward projection, while their descendants, Pteranodon longiceps, evolved a narrower, more backward-projecting crest. Females of both species were smaller and bore small, rounded crests. The crests were probably mainly display structures, though they may have had other functions as well.
Skeleton[]
Other distinguishing characteristics that set Pteranodon apart from other pterosaurs include narrow neural spines on the vertebrae, plate-like bony ligaments strengthening the vertebrae above the hip, and a relatively short tail in which the last few vertebrae are fused into a long rod. The entire length of the tail was about 3.5% as long as the wingspan, or up to 25 centimetres (9.8 in) in the largest males.
Timespan and evolution[]
Pteranodon fossils are known primarily from the Niobrara Formation of the central United States. Broadly defined, Pteranodon existed for more than four million years, during the late Coniacian to early Campanian stages of the Cretaceous period. The genus is present in most layers of the Niobrara Formation except for the upper two; in 2003, Kenneth Carpenter surveyed the distribution and dating of fossils in this formation, demonstrating that Pteranodon sternbergi existed there from 88 to 85 million years ago, while P. longiceps existed between 86 and 84.5 million years ago. A possible third species, which Kellner named Geosternbergia maysei in 2010, is known from the Sharon Springs member of the Pierre Shale Formation in Kansas, Wyoming, and South Dakota, dating to between 81.5 and 80.5 million years ago.
In the early 1990s, Bennett noted that the two major morphs of pteranodont present in the Niobrara Formation were precisely separated in time with little, if any, overlap. Due to this, and to their gross overall similarity, he suggested that they probably represent chronospecies within a single evolutionary lineage lasting about 4 million years. In other words, only one species of Pteranodon would have been present at any one time, and P. sternbergi (or Geosternbergia) in all likelihood was the direct ancestor species of P. longiceps.
Biology and ecology[]
Gallery[]
