Pteranodontia

Pteranodontia is an extinct group of ornithocheiroid pterodactyloid pterosaurs. It lived during the Late Cretaceous of North America, South America, Europe and Africa. They were some of the most advanced pterosaurs, and possessed highly specialized cranial crests that may have served as sexual attraction, with males having a much larger crest.

Pteranodontia

Smokeybjb · CC BY-SA 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
PterodactyloideaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 80 million years on record.

The record covers at least 152.21 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 66 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 184 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 2 of 184 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 91 of 184 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 91 of 184 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 184 occurrences170–167 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences167–163 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences163–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences160–156 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences156–153 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences153–149 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142–138 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences138–135 Mya — about 2 occurrences135–131 Mya — about 3 occurrences131–128 Mya — about 2 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 8 occurrences124–121 Mya — about 13 occurrences121–117 Mya — about 13 occurrences117–114 Mya — about 16 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 3 occurrences110–106 Mya — about 3 occurrences106–103 Mya — about 16 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 16 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 15 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 9 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 3 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 9 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 21 occurrences82–78 Mya — about 7 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 7 occurrences75–71 Mya — about 7 occurrences71–67 Mya — about 5 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 2 occurrences152.21 Mya72.2 Mya170 Mya64 Mya

184 occurrences of Pteranodontia on record, most of them in the Early 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

184 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

44 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 — 38.64°N, 100.17°WNiobrara — 38.88°N, 100.24°WNiobrara — 39.07°N, 99.04°WNiobrara — 38.76°N, 100.82°WRomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WRomualdo — 7.97°S, 39.43°WRomualdo — 7.18°S, 39.73°WRomualdo — 7.52°S, 39.57°WWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.20°N, 0.13°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.24°N, 0.19°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.04°N, 0.15°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 — 43.30°N, 103.82°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 104.22°WToolebuc — 20.88°S, 143.80°EToolebuc — 22.92°S, 140.58°EToolebuc — 22.87°S, 140.72°EToolebuc — 22.67°S, 141.50°EToolebuc — 20.43°S, 142.93°EToolebuc — 20.64°S, 143.10°EWessex — 50.66°N, 1.13°WWessex — 50.62°N, 1.38°WWessex — 50.65°N, 1.47°WWessex — 50.65°N, 1.45°WIfezouane — 31.53°N, 4.67°WIfezouane — 30.88°N, 3.86°WIfezouane — 31.61°N, 4.30°WIfezouane — 31.80°N, 4.25°WIfezouane — 31.59°N, 4.18°WJiufotang — 41.42°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.16°EJiufotang — 41.53°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 40.91°N, 119.50°ECouche III — 32.88°N, 6.62°WCouche III — 32.92°N, 6.65°WRybushka — 51.35°N, 45.04°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°EMerchantville — 39.54°N, 75.73°WAlcântara — 2.48°S, 44.46°WVectis — 50.61°N, 1.36°WYixian — 41.13°N, 121.14°EYixian — 41.60°N, 120.87°EMelovatka — 50.88°N, 44.74°ECalcaires à Spatangues — 48.53°N, 4.93°ECalcaires à Spatangues — 48.33°N, 4.00°EWadhurst Clay — 50.86°N, 0.44°EMocuio — 14.27°S, 12.38°EWinton — 22.20°S, 142.53°EWinton — 22.35°S, 143.09°ETwo Medicine — 48.65°N, 112.97°WPaw Paw — 32.84°N, 97.32°WBlesa — 40.95°N, 0.77°WApón — 10.48°N, 72.42°WChulec — 9.87°S, 76.95°W

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The named rock units Pteranodontia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 20 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pteranodontia and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Pteranodontia and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

790 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 133 sites for Pteranodontia, 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

118 references

Each of the 184 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. 106 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 content1

Picture of Pteranodontia

Credit
Smokeybjb
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pteranodontia was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itPterodactyloidea through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

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