OBJECT DOSSIER · SMITHSONIAN OPEN ACCESS

Pterosaur — Pteranodon sp.

SAGE Museum Deep Time scientific dossier

Artist / Creator

David W.E. Hone1, Mark P. Witton2, Michael B. Habib

Date / Period

Late Cretaceous — Santonian for documented Smithsonian material · Late Cretaceous.

Object Type

skeletal fossil

Medium

unknown_needs_review

About This Object

Geologic period: Late Cretaceous — Santonian for documented Smithsonian material

Age: Late Cretaceous.

Feeding: Marine feeding, commonly interpreted as fish-focused.

Locomotion: Powered flight and soaring.

Body plan: Large flying reptile with long narrow wings, toothless jaws and a prominent cranial crest in many individuals.

Evidence: Wing bones and skull anatomy are direct evidence. Flight performance is reconstructed biomechanically.

Why it matters: Pteranodon lets visitors compare three independent flight solutions: pterosaurs, birds and later bats.

Plain Language Identity: A large toothless Late Cretaceous pterosaur from the Western Interior Seaway.

What You Are Looking At: Pteranodon fossil material used in the flight-evolution comparison.

Ecosystem: Western Interior Seaway.

Formation: Niobrara Formation for documented Smithsonian specimens.

Find Location: Kansas, United States for documented Smithsonian material.

Preservation: Original fossil material.

Open Questions: Pteranodon was not a dinosaur and not a bird.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://www.si.edu/object/nmnhpaleobiology_3447912

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title + scientific name + source scene matched; comparative chronology retained; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Pteranodon sp.

Evidence / representation: comparative_taxon_visual

Why It Is In This SAGE Exhibit

comparative_taxon_visual

Cretaceous Worlds: Dinosaurs at Their Most Diverse.

Provenance

Smithsonian Deep Time source scene: Bird Origins / Cretaceous Seas 1

Visual source institution: Wikimedia Commons

Exhibition History

Included in the SAGE Museum Dinosaurs & Deep Time staging exhibit.

Collection & Credit

Media license: CC BY 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Subjects & Themes

Pteranodon sp. Late Cretaceous — Santonian for documented Smithsonian material skeletal fossil Bird Origins / Cretaceous Seas 1 Cretaceous Worlds

ORIGINAL COLLECTION SOURCE

This object page stays inside SAGE Museum. The Smithsonian link below is provided only as the original scholarly collection record. It opens separately.

VIEW ORIGINAL SMITHSONIAN RECORD ↗