Work in progress underpainting of Pteranodon longiceps. This creature flew through the skies of the Late Cretaceous around 86 to 84.5 million years ago in what would become North America.
Discovered in 1879 in Kansas by Othniel Charles Marsh in chalk desposits, all that remained of an ancient shallow sea that once crossed over the middle of the North American continent. Those original findings included the bones of a partial wing and a tooth from a fish named Xiphactinus that Marsh initially took to belong to the pterosaur he had just discoverer. He initially named it Pterodactylus oweni, thinking that it was a member of the Pterodactylus genus that had previously been discovered in Europe. He changed the name again after finding that the previous name had already been assigned to another specimen, calling it Pterodactylus occidentalis.
At the same time Edward Drinker Cope, Marsh's professional and personal rival had found specimens of the same animal elsewhere, assigning his finds to another European genus of pterosaur, Ornithocheirus.
As Cope's paper was published just 5 days after Marsh's the two engaged in debate, each advocating that they were the first to discover this new flying beast. Marsh won in the end and Marsh's description was put in the history books, naming Pterodactylus occidentalis and what he thought was a larger species P. umbrosus. It wasn't until later that a skull would be found by Samuel Wendell Williston, showing that Marsh was mistaken in his assumption that they were part of the Pterodactylus genus.
Marsh realized his mistake and renamed his discovery, Pteranodon (wing without tooth) to fit with the fact that up until that point all other pterosaur species that had been discovered had teeth. He maintained separate a separate species classification for the smaller animal with the shorter crest. Numerous other species were named and renamed as more were discovered.
Much later Christopher Bennett, proved that the initial differences between the shorter crested small Pteranodons and the ones with the larger crests and more robust size were consistent with aspects of sexual dimorphism, meaning that there were pronounced differences between males and females of the group.
At it's largest, Pteranodon appears to have had an enormous 20 foot wingspan, dwarfing that of all living bird species. Despite this size, it's hollow bone structure would have made it much lighter than it appeared, with estimates ranging from as low as 44 pounds for smaller specimens and as heavy as around 200 pounds for a big male specimen, which was still very light for an animal as big as it was.
P. longiceps would have most likely launched itself into the air propelling itself from a standing position with it's strong arm muscles akin to essentially throwing itself into the air via natural catapult.
It most likely fed on a diet of fish and other sea creatures, based on the location where specimens have been found and the remains of prey animals found with them.
