Pteranodon: The toothless flying reptile of the Cretaceous

Pteranodon is the big flier in the museum's sky gallery. It spreads its membranous wings and rides the winds above an ancient sea. One thing to say first: Pteranodon is not a dinosaur. It is a flying reptile that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.

Its body

The most unusual thing about Pteranodon is that its beak has no teeth. The beak is long and pointed — a hollow "flyer's beak", well suited to snapping up fish from near the water surface. A long, thin crest extends backwards from the top of its head. The crest probably helped with balance in flight and may also have been used to show off between individuals.

Its wings are membranes of skin stretched over long finger bones, giving it a very large wingspan suited to gliding on sea winds. Its body was lighter than you might expect: the bones are hollow but strong, which is what makes flight possible. The hind legs are short, useful for resting on rocks or shorelines.

Where it lived and what it ate

Fish remains in the stomach of a fossil show that fish were part of its diet. Pteranodon probably flew low over the water like a seabird, scooping up fish near the surface. It lived in the Late Cretaceous, when the middle of today's United States was covered by a broad inland sea — an ideal hunting ground.

Where its fossils were found

Pteranodon fossils come mainly from North America, especially the United States. Because so many specimens have been studied, its skeleton is among the best-known of any pterosaur.

What the fossils tell us — and what they do not

The skeleton tells us how the wings were supported and roughly how big the animal was, but the full shape of the wing membrane, the exact motions it used to launch, and the colour of its crest are rarely preserved. So the colours and details you see here are evidence-informed reconstructions — "well-grounded guesses", not photographs of a living animal.

A note for grown-ups

You could ask a child: "If Pteranodon has no teeth, how does it catch fish?" The answer is hidden in its long beak. Noticing an animal's "tools" is a great way to start understanding how it lives.