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Pteranodon longiceps — Pteranodon longiceps
Pteranodon longiceps — régine debatty, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 2.0

Pterosaur

Pteranodon longiceps

Pterosaur

Pteranodon is the toothless, crested pterosaur of the Niobrara Chalk with a 6–7 m wingspan. Its hollow, paper-thin wing bones are found in the Smoky Hill Chalk and occasionally sold as fragments and phalanges; complete wings are museum pieces. Pteranodon bone crushes flat and is heavily consolidated in every prepared specimen.

PhylumChordata
ClassReptilia
OrderPterosauria
FamilyPteranodontidae
GroupPterosaur
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorMarsh 1876· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Chordata › Reptilia › Pterosauria › NO_FAMILY_SPECIFIED· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)89.8–72.2 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences43· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Pteranodon longiceps — Pteranodon occidentalis (NHMUK PV R 2959)
Pteranodon occidentalis (NHMUK PV R 2959) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Pteranodon longiceps — Pteranodon Marsh, 1876 (NHMUK PV R 4534)
Pteranodon Marsh, 1876 (NHMUK PV R 4534) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Pteranodon longiceps — Pteranodon longiceps Marsh, 1876 (NHMUK PV R 4011)
Pteranodon longiceps Marsh, 1876 (NHMUK PV R 4011) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Pteranodon longiceps" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/pteranodon-longiceps. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-pteranodon-longiceps,
  title        = {Pteranodon longiceps},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/pteranodon-longiceps}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.