Pteranodon

Pteranodon 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). They lived during the late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota and Alabama. 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.

A picture published with the record for Pteranodon.

Matt Martyniuk · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PteranodontiaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria
Mass
93 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 89.8 Mya and 72.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 43 of 43 occurrencesLate Cretaceous90–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences88–88 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences87–87 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 4 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 7 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 7 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 6 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences90.3 Mya71.7 Mya

43 occurrences of Pteranodon on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

43 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Niobrara — 38.80°N, 100.87°WNiobrara — 39.12°N, 100.02°WNiobrara — 38.91°N, 101.27°WNiobrara — 38.91°N, 101.24°WNiobrara — 39.42°N, 99.83°WNiobrara — 38.82°N, 100.72°WNiobrara — 39.37°N, 99.70°WNiobrara — 38.83°N, 100.12°WNiobrara — 39.37°N, 99.93°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 100.67°WNiobrara — 38.73°N, 101.17°WNiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 38.88°N, 100.24°WNiobrara — 39.07°N, 99.04°WNiobrara — 38.76°N, 100.82°WPierre Shale — 43.88°N, 102.25°WPierre Shale — 43.67°N, 103.45°WPierre Shale — 43.22°N, 103.45°WPierre Shale — 43.41°N, 103.31°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 103.30°WPierre Shale — 43.38°N, 104.23°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 104.22°WMerchantville — 39.54°N, 75.73°WSharon Springs — 43.41°N, 103.31°W

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The named rock units Pteranodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pteranodon and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Pteranodon and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

46 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 39 sites for Pteranodon, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

17 references

Each of the 43 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 5 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content4

Picture of Pteranodon

Credit
Matt Martyniuk
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D scan

Licence
CC0 — this site’s default, not the record’s
Commercial use
the licence allows it
Specimen
Pteranodon ? oregonensis Gilmore, 1928

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pteranodon longiceps · FHSM:vp:2183

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPteranodontia through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1876