Sentences with phrase «pterosaur fossils»

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.

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.

Dr Witton said: «The specimen is far from the prettiest or most complete pterosaur fossil you'll ever see, but it's still an exciting and significant find.

The first pterosaur fossil was discovered in the late Jurassic Solnhofen limestone in 1784, and since then 29 other kinds of pterosaurs have been found in the Solnhofen site.

Not exact matches

While conducting paleontological research in northeastern Mexico, the scientists came upon sedimentary rock deposited toward the end of the Cretaceous Period that evidenced an enormous diversity of fossils, including the tracks of birds, dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

The aspiring pilot has the help of Tennessee engineer Jim Cunningham, who has been studying two fossil pterosaurs to figure out just how their wings worked.

Elizabeth Martin - Silverstone added: «The absence of small juveniles of large species — which must have existed — in the fossil record is evidence of a preservational bias against small pterosaurs in the Late Cretaceous.

As with other evidence of smaller pterosaurs, the fossil specimen is fragmentary and poorly preserved: researchers should check collections more carefully for misidentified or ignored pterosaur material, which may enhance our picture of pterosaur diversity and disparity at this time.»

Pterosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, and the largest fossils are incomplete, so there has been much argument as to how, or whether, they flew.

The fossil assemblage of Rugosodon also includes feathered dinosaur Anchiornis and the pterosaur Darwinopterus.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fossils of the newly described pterosaur were unearthed from 120 - million - year - old rocks at two sites in northeastern China.

New fossils uphold that view, challenging a recent consensus that all pterosaurs were more like overgrown cranes that preyed on rat - sized baby dinosaurs.

The fossils formed about 120 million years ago when disaster struck a group of pterosaurs.

Up until now the fossil record of pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that soared alongside dinosaurs, has been rather poor.

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.

A spectacular fossil find is providing tantalizing new clues about the habits of pterosaurs, ancient flying reptiles that lived at the same times as dinosaurs.

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

Based on fossils discovered so far, it's known that toothed pterosaurs are generally abundant during the Cretaceous in Asia, Europe and South America.

Fossils of fish, frogs, crocodiles, salamanders, lizards, crayfish, turtles, pterosaurs, clams are also found.

«These fossils shed new light on the reproductive strategy, ontogeny, and behavior of pterosaurs,» researchers wrote in their report,» published online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

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

And in April, scientists discovered fossils belonging to the world's earliest and most primitive pterosaur, a 163 million - year - old find.

The fossil bed found in Brazil contained hundreds of bones from roughly 50 individual pterosaurs, including partial skulls and jawbones, according to the study.