Pteranodon

Pteranodon is a genus of pterosaurs, including some of the largest known flying reptiles, whose wingspan was more than 7 meters. Pteranodons lived in North America on the territory of modern Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota. More than 1,200 pteranodon specimens are known, many well preserved; in particular, there are almost complete skulls and articulated skeletons.

The fossil remains of pteranodon are extremely well represented in the paleontological chronicle, which makes it possible to describe their anatomy in detail and analyze their life history. More than 1,200 specimens have been identified, although less than half are complete enough to provide researchers with good anatomical information. However, this material is more complete than that of any other pterosaur, and it includes both male and female individuals of different age groups and possibly species.

Adult specimens of pteranodons of the two main species can be divided into two different sizes. The type of smaller specimens has small crests with rounded heads and very wide pelvic canals, even wider than those of a much larger size class. The size of the pelvic canal probably allowed eggs to be laid, indicating that these specimens belong to small-sized adult females. The type of large specimens representing males has narrow hips and very large crests, which were probably intended for demonstration.

Adult male pteranodons were among the largest pterosaurs and were the largest flying animals known until the end of the 20th century, when giant azhdarchid pterosaurs were discovered. The wingspan of the average adult male pteranodon was 5.6 m. Adult females were much smaller, on average their wingspan was 3.8 m. The largest specimen of a Pteranodon has a length of 6.25 m from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other wing. While most of the specimens were found fragmented, enough fossils were found to form a detailed description of the animal.

The methods used to estimate the mass of large male pteranodon specimens (with a wingspan of about 7 m) were notoriously unreliable, which allowed us to obtain a wide range of estimates - from 20 kg to 93 kg. In a review of pterosaur size estimates published in 2010, researchers Mark Whitton and Mike Habib demonstrated that the last, largest estimates are almost certainly incorrect, given the total body volume of a pteranodon, and can only be correct if the animal "would mainly consist of aluminum." Whitton and Habib considered the methods used by researchers who received smaller mass estimates to be equally erroneous. Most of them were obtained by scaling modern animals, such as bats and birds, to the size of a pteranodon, despite the fact that pterosaurs have completely different body proportions and soft tissue anatomy from any modern animal.

The basis of the lizard's diet was fish and small crustaceans. He caught them in flight with a long beak.