When pterosaurs thrived, the world would have looked like a very different place. The climate was warmer, almost subtropical. And the Solnhofen archipelago in modern-day Bavaria, Germany, was home to various flying reptiles.
In the late Jurassic period, 145 million years ago, they would have lived alongside a feathered dinosaur named Alcomonavis as well as a small predator called Compsognathus. But for the most part, the archipelago was home to a plethora of these ancient flying beasts. One species in particular, known as Petrodactyle wellnhoferi, would have stood out from the rest.
(Credit: Skye McDavid, CC BY 4.0 /Paleontological Society) Reconstruction of the complete skeleton of Petrodactyle wellnhoferi in a standing pose. Scale bar is 200 mm. Missing parts based on Cycnorhamphus following Witton (2013).
Skye McDavid, CC BY 4.0 /Paleontological Society
A recent study published in the June 2023 edition of the journal Paleontologia Electronica documented the discovery of ...
