pterosaur

noun ptero·saur \ ˈter-ə-ˌsȯr \

|Updated on: 9 Jun 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

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
This was shortly before the mass extinction event 66 million years ago that killed off all the pterosaurs alongside the nonavian dinosaurs.

— National Geographic, "Ancient Flying Predator Found in Transylvania," 8 May 2018
Highlights include the Lufengosaurus huenei, the first dinosaur found in China, the 85-foot-long Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis, pterosaurs, and ichthyosaurs—aquatic reptiles that dominated the oceans.

— ginny mohler, Smithsonian, "Ten Chinese Museums Where You Can See a Dinosaur Fossil Up Close," 18 Apr. 2018
During the Jurassic period over the German archipelago, the only company Archaeopteryx would've had in the skies were primitive pterosaurs.

— ashley strickland, CNN, "This 'enigmatic' feathered dinosaur didn't fly like modern birds," 13 Mar. 2018
Multi-layered inter-actives allow users to explore pterosaur fossils, behavior and anatomy.

— roxanne washington, cleveland.com, "'Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs' exhibit at Cleveland Museum of Natural History: photos," 23 Feb. 2018
So did our ancestors — small mammals the size of squirrels or badgers — and the flying reptiles known as pterosaurs.

— kenneth chang, New York Times, "Where NASA Put a Parking Lot, Dinosaurs and Mammals Once Crossed Paths," 31 Jan. 2018
The team then compared Archaeopteryx’s stats to those of 55 modern birds, two crocodilians, and two species of pterosaurs, the winged reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs.

— National Geographic, "This Famous Dinosaur Could Fly—But Unlike Anything Alive Today," 13 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.