Scientists have since described more than 200 pterosaur species, but popular notions about pterosaurs—the winged dragons that ruled Mesozoic skies for 162 million years—have remained stuck.

Some 80 million years before birds took flight, another group of creatures dominated the skies — the pterosaurs. These extraordinary reptiles were the first vertebrates to achieve powered flight.

Photo: Courtesy of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences A new ...

Uncontested in the air, pterosaurs colonized all continents and evolved a vast array of shapes and sizes. Of more than 120 named species, the smallest pterosaur measured no bigger than a sparrow ...

Chinese and Brazilian researchers have unearthed a nearly complete fossilized skeleton of a previously unknown pterosaur species in Jianchang County, northeast China's Liaoning Province.

But we rarely look back to extinct species when seeking inspiration for new engineering developments—but we should. “We are so excited to find and map these microscopic interlocking structures in ...

A research team said the two fossilized species are some of the oldest in East Asia to have ever been found in adjacent layers of earth. The cylindrical pterosaur fossil, nicknamed “Satsuma ...

“But there’s a little of everything there—dinosaurs and crocodilians, among other fauna. Among the pterosaurs, I’ve described 29 species,” says the paleontologist, who is also a research associate of ...

(Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology/Handout via Xinhua) SHENYANG, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Brazilian researchers have unearthed a nearly complete fossilized skeleton of ...

This newly discovered species belongs to the Wukongopteridae, an important pterosaur clade from the Yanliao Biota in northeastern China. The new species distinguishes itself from other members of ...