Pteranodon, the Toothless Wing

In my recent article "Jurassic Park III: A Review", I mentioned that one of the paleontological errors that I saw in the movie was the fact that a Pteranodon was shown with large, fierce teeth when, in fact, its name means "toothless wing."

Pteranodon was a pterosaur, a group of flying reptiles that are often mistakenly called dinosaurs. Although they belonged to the archosauria, a group that included the dinosaurs, crocodilians and pterosaurs, they were not dinosaurs.

Pteranodon was a member of the Pterodactyloid suborder of the pterosaurs. The Pterodactyloids were larger than the Rhamphorynchoid pterosaurs and lacked the long tails of the Rhamphorynchoids. They included Quetzalcoatlus, Dsungaripterus, Pteranodon and Pterodactylus. Some fossil specimens have the remains of what appears to be fur. This fur may have helped to elevate their body temperatures and give them an endothermic or "warm blooded" metabolism that would have enabled them to fly (a very energetically expensive activity). (Be sure to read my article "Dinosaurs: Cold-Blooded versus Warm-Blooded?".)

Pteranodon lived during the Cretaceous Period (140 to 65 million years ago). They were about six feet (1.8 meters) in length, with a wingspan of 25 to 33 feet (7.8 to 10 meters)! Despite their large size, they weighed only 35 pounds (16 kilograms). This was because the bones of Pteranodon and other pterosaurs were hollow, just as the bones of modern flying birds are. The hollow bones reduce weight, while bony struts inside the bones maintain the structural strength.

Pteranodon had large eyes and a large brain, indicating that it was probably very intelligent and a good hunter, although it lacked teeth. It probably fed on fish, mollusks, crabs and insects, as well as scavenging dead animals it found on land. Its hind legs and feet were probably not strong enough to grasp a large fish, so it is believed that Pteranodon may have caught fish by scooping them up with a large pouch in its lower jaw, the same way that modern pelicans do. In fact, some specimens of Pterodactylus found in the lithographic stone of Solnhofen, Germany, show this pouch feature.

The first Pteranodon skull was found on May 2, 1876, in Smoky Hill River, Wallace County, Kansas by S. W. Williston, a fossil collector working for Othniel Marsh. Pteranodon was then named and described by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1876.

The genus Pteranodon contains many species, many of which have large head crests that are a part of their skulls. Some paleontologists have postulated that the crests may have helped Pteranodon to steer, as it lacked the long tail of the Phamphorynchoid pterosaurs, or that they may have acted as a counterweight to the long jaws. Other paleontologists feel that the crests may have been for sexual display purposes, to attract a mate.

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