Pteranodon
Pteranodon longiceps
Pronounced: ter - An - o - don
Diet: Carnivore (Meat-Eater)
Name Means: "wing without tooth"
Length: 30 feet (9 m)
Height:
Weight: 45 pounds (20 kilos)
Time: Late Cretaceous - 85 MYA
Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have been found in
Central U.S.
First thing,
Pteranodon is
not a dinosaur,
it is a flying
reptile. A
really big
flying reptile!
When it spread
its wings, it
could reach from
the front to the
back of school
bus. Just
imagine
something that
big flying
around. It
didn't have
feathers, but it
may have had a
covering of fur,
sort of like a
bat.
Members of the pterosaur family lived through much of the Mesozoic, some with wingspans close to 50 feet. Pteranodon, as you can tell by the translation of its name, had no teeth. It probably used the long crest on the back of its head to help it steer while flying. There is still some debate about whether these reptiles could actually fly or if they were primarily gliders, but the consensus seems to be that they could take off with little or no wind.
Their diet was probably fish and scavenged remains of dead animals. Quite a few Pteranodon skeletons have been found in Kansas in the central part of the U.S. This would have been the shore of a shallow sea when these creatures were alive, supporting the theory that they were fish eaters. |
