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.

Some pterosaur species, such as the Quetzalcoatlus were the largest known animals to ever take to the skies, with wingspans of over ten meters (on par with military aircraft like the Spitfire).

Of more than 120 named species, the smallest pterosaur measured no bigger than a sparrow; the largest reached a wingspan of nearly 40 feet (12 meters), wider than an F-16 fighter. Until recently ...

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.

In fact, the largest animal that ever took flight — an iconic species discovered more than half a century ago but only recently described in great detail — was a pterosaur. Pterosaur fossils ...

Since the discovery of Yandangopterus orientalis in 1997, more than 40 species of pterosaur fossils have been found in western Liaoning and its surrounding areas. As of September 2016, the Jehol ...

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 ...

(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 ...

SHENYANG, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Brazilian researchers have unearthed a nearly complete fossilized skeleton of a previously unknown pterosaur species in Jianchang County, northeast China ...