Sentences with word «pterosaur»

Floodwaters from an intense storm may have swept away and buried hundreds of pterosaur eggs in this bone bed, along with the scattered remains of a few adults.

To date, only a small handful of pterosaur eggs with a well - preserved 3 - D structure and embryo inside have been found and analyzed — three eggs from Argentina and five from China.

Dozens of larger pterosaurs from the same general time period have been unearthed.

Earlier this year Habib suggested that the largest pterosaurs took flight by using all four limbs to leap into the air — a technique similar to that used by some bats but quite unlike the take - off behaviour of modern birds.

The latest study relies on only a few bones, so it does not provide definitive proof that small pterosaur species existed alongside the larger ones, says Alexander Kellner, a palaeontologist at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.

Colin Palmer, a graduate student at the University of Bristol, arrived at this conclusion by employing his expertise as a turbine engineer to carry out first - of - a kind tests on models of pterosaur wings in a wind tunnel.

The new Texas native, Cimoliopterus dunni, is only the third pterosaur species with teeth from the Cretaceous of North America.

Newly discovered pterosaur fossils suggest a smaller species of the dinosaur order that could have implications for the extinction that took place at the end of the Cretaceous period.

«The Daohugou Biota gives us a look at a rarely glimpsed side of the Middle to Late Jurassic - not a parade of galumphing giants, but an assemblage of quirky little creatures like feathered dinosaurs, pterosaurs with advanced heads on primitive bodies, and the Mesozoic equivalent of a flying squirrel,» lead author Corwin Sullivan, an associate professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, was quoted as saying in a press release.

The flying reptiles known as pterosaurs disappeared, as well as all dinosaurs save birds.

New fossils now indicate some giant pterosaurs probably did dine on bigger prey, such as dwarf dinosaurs the size of a small horse, 70 million years ago on an island that became modern - day Transylvania.

The researchers used a large - field SEM approach to analyze a shrimp fossil from the Araripe Basin, a place in northeastern Brazil known among paleontologists as a treasure trove of flying pterosaur remains.

«Hundreds of fossilized eggs shed light on pterosaur development.»

It's fortunate to have the beautifully preserved fossil because the potential for preserving pterosaur bones is low, Myers said.

The large collection of fossils suggests pterosaurs lived together in large, gregarious colonies.

Without a living analogue, the mechanics of pterosaur take - off, flight and landing, have been part conjecture and part theory.

But in recent years, scientists have discovered specimens that suggest pterosaurs grew larger as they evolved.

The specimen is unusual as most pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous were much larger with wingspans of between four and eleven metres (the biggest being as large as a giraffe, with a wingspan of a small plane), whereas this new specimen had a wingspan of only 1.5 metres.

Pterosaurs remain common until the Upper Cretaceous when competition occurs from evolving birds.

Pterosaurs nested on land but their bones are often recovered from shallow marine rocks.

This study also offers a slice of pterosaur life history that is out of reach of fossil evidence, suggesting that the reptiles lived within easy access of warm thermal wind currents near open spaces of land or near the ocean.

Such mature features suggest that, like modern chickens, ducks, and turkeys, pterosaurs probably could fend for themselves soon after hatching.

The rare find is the first time scientists have unearthed complete pterosaur eggs, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences» Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology announced Thursday.

Although most pterosaur tracks show the animals walking on all fours, the first prints in the newly discovered tracks are of the rear limbs only.

Paleontologist Kevin Padian of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues uncovered a major clue on «Pterosaur Beach.»

This is the smallest pterosaur discovered from the Late Cretaceous (Kreh - TAY - shius)-- and by a lot, notes Elizabeth Martin - Silverstone.

June 12, 2013 — Brazilian paleontologists Taissa Rodrigues, of the Federal University of Espirito Santo, and Alexander W. A. Kellner, of the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, have just presented the most extensive review yet available of toothed pterosaurs from the Cretaceous of England.

Finding fossilized eggs containing 3 - D embryos opens a new window into pterosaur development, says coauthor Alexander Kellner, a vertebrate paleontologist at Museu Nacional / Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

However, a trove uncovered by paleontologists in northwest China is home to hundreds of well - preserved pterosaur bones that will help boost our knowledge of the creatures.

But Michael Habib at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, points out that the real mystery of pterosaur flight remains unsolved.

When he first saw pictures of this unusual fossilized pterosaur skull from a private collection, Alexander Kellner, a paleontologist at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, didn't think it was real.

A small azhdarchoid pterosaur from the latest Cretaceous, the age of flying giants.

These flying reptiles are shown here not surrounded not by other pterosaurs, but birds.

Unlike pterosaur walking tracks, in which the prints of the left and right feet are staggered, Padian and colleagues found that the first two foot impressions were side by side.

They also performed a comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary history of pterosaurs using the latest data and other anatomical features.

Only a few fossilized pterosaur eggs had turned up before, at sites in Argentina and in China.

The answer, according to Mark Witton of the University of Portsmouth, UK, is that pterosaurs didn't fly like birds.

The dragon's sheer size dwarfs the biggest pterosaurs, the largest flying animals ever known.

A rare small - bodied pterosaur, a flying reptile from the Late Cretaceous period approximately 77 million years ago, is the first of its kind to have been discovered on the west coast of North America.

Myers identified the new pterosaur from a partial upper jaw — specifically the tip of the blunt snout, or rostrum.

No one would expect a baby bird to take flight immediately after hatching, yet paleontologists who have examined the first known pterosaur embryo think that's exactly what the fledgling reptiles once did.

The cache of more than 200 fossil eggs found with bones of juvenile and adult animals in northwestern China suggests to some researchers that pterosaur parents may have cared for their newly hatched young.

The third Texas pterosaur, 105 - million - year - old Coloborhynchus wadleighi, was identified in 1994 by then - SMU student Yuong - Nam Lee.

They record the moment a small pterosaur came into land, says Kevin Padian at the University of California, Berkeley.

It's rare to find pterosaur fossils at all because their skeletons were lightweight and easily damaged once they died, and the small ones are the rarest of all.

There are not enough details to speculate about pterosaur behavior, he cautions.

But enough is preserved to allow comparisons between the bones in the embryos and those of older pterosaurs also preserved, says Alexander Kellner of the National Museum at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, who helped analyze the fossils.

The specimen thus seems to be a genuinely small species, and not just a baby or juvenile of a larger pterosaur type.»

Five intact eggs belonging to the prehistoric pterosaur, a winged reptile that lived among dinosaurs some 120 million years ago, were found among dozens of fossils that were recently excavated in northwestern China.