A new study led by Ohio University’s Lawrence Witmer reveals that pterosaurs built their own “flight computers” from scratch, evolving unique brain structures for powered flight long before birds took ...

In a study of fossils, a research team led by evolutionary biologist and Johns Hopkins Medicine assistant professor Matteo Fabbri suggests that a group of giant reptiles alive up to 220 million years ...

For more than a hundred years, scientists believed flying reptiles called pterosaurs took to the air with birdlike brains. Old fossils seemed to show it. Hard stone casts inside skulls hinted at big ...

Flight is a rare skill in the animal world. Among vertebrates, it evolved only three times: in bats, birds, and the long-extinct pterosaurs. Pterosaurs were the pioneers, taking to the skies more than ...

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us? Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: About 110 million years ago, two ...

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment. Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the ...

Around 110 million years ago, an apparent dinosaur ate two pterosaurs and four fish and, for whatever reason, threw them back up. A rare mix of geological conditions preserved this dinosaur vomit for ...

The area known as the Santana Group in the Araripe Basin in northeastern Brazil has long been an important fossil site, contributing significantly to knowledge of the Cretaceous period. In particular, ...

Pterosaurs represent the earliest group of vertebrates with powered flight capability, originating in the Late Triassic and becoming extinct alongside non-avian dinosaurs by the end of the Cretaceous.

Unlike in the advanced labs under the watchful eye of Jurassic Park scientists on the fictional Isla Nublar, much of paleontology isn’t so glamorous. From days spent in remote desert landscapes to ...

One hundred and fifty million years ago, the Solnhofen Limestones of Germany were covered in small islands and warm saltwater lagoons. Coral reefs flourished with crinoids, sponges, jellyfish, and ...

The 150-million-year-old Solnhofen Limestone in southern Germany contains prehistoric lagoon deposits known for yielding wonderfully preserved fossils, including those of pterosaurs: flying reptiles ...