Pteranodon

Try to combine a bat, turkey, and pelican – then you can almost visualize it

Imagine a bat-like creature several meters long, with a turkey-sized belly and a beak resembling that of a pelican. Add a long horn protruding from the top of its head, and you have Pteranodon. It was a relative of the flying reptile Quetzalcoatlus, and like Quetzalcoatlus, it was not a dinosaur but a flying reptile known as a pterosaur. Although Pteranodon was smaller than Quetzalcoatlus, it is the more well-known of the two. Its bones appear robust, but they were actually hollow and millimeters thin. Despite its enormous size, Pteranodon was a sturdy and maneuverable flyer. However, it probably didn’t flap its wings as much as a tiny hummingbird; instead, it glided similar to the large birds we know today.

Size
Wingspan of 5.6 meters for males and 3.8 meters for females

Weight
Up to 200-250 kilograms

Period
Late Cretaceous

Period
86-84.5 million years ago

Diet
Piscivorous (fish-eater)

Discovery sites
North America