pterosaur

noun ptero·saur \ ˈter-ə-ˌsȯr \

|Updated on: 4 Aug 2018

Definition of pterosaur

: any of an order (Pterosauria) of extinct flying reptiles existing from the Late Triassic throughout the Jurassic and most of the Cretaceous and having a featherless wing membrane extending from the side of the body along the arm to the end of the greatly elongated fourth digit

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Recent Examples of pterosaur from the Web

That followed the suspension around Maximo’s body of a flock of pterosaur models — flying prehistoric reptiles — on guy lines, birds on a wire.

— steve johnson, chicagotribune.com, "With a skeleton and megaplanters, the Field Museum fleshes out its main hall," 26 June 2018
Pteranodon was a large flying reptile, or pterosaur, that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.

— amy raudenbush, Philly.com, "Hey, kids: Draw this prehistoric pteranodon for a chance to see your artwork published," 6 July 2018
Field scientists have been working closely with Blue Rhino to ensure the models agree with current scientific thinking about what pterosaurs would have looked like.

— steve johnson, chicagotribune.com, "Hanging 'plant clouds,' pterosaurs to join crowd in Field Museum's Stanley Field Hall makeover," 10 Jan. 2018
The scientists did find similarities between birds’ hyoids and those in an unexpected group: pterosaurs.

— mindy weisberger, Scientific American, "T. Rex Couldn’t Stick Out Its Tongue," 24 June 2018
Stanford also has found the webbed prints of pterosaurs — flying reptiles — and five-toed tracks from primitive mammals.

— sarah kaplan, Washington Post, "Fossil hunting 101: Lessons from a self-taught dinosaur tracker," 16 June 2018
One of the world’s largest named pterosaurs, Hatzegopteryx, also comes from the Hateg region.

— National Geographic, "Ancient Flying Predator Found in Transylvania," 8 May 2018
This lineage includes the emergence of dinosaurs and pterosaurs ~240 million years ago, passing through the theropod dinosaurs (whose members include T.rex and Velociraptor) and ends with birds.

— darren griffin, Scientific American, "Jurassic World: Can We Really Resurrect a Dinosaur?," 6 June 2018
Insects took to the empty skies sometime between 300 and 360 million years ago, long before birds, bats or pterosaurs.

— asher elbein, New York Times, "Insects Flew Before Anything Else Did. So How Did They Get Their Wings?," 26 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pterosaur.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.