LegendaryNyctosaurus
Nyctosaurus gracilis
NIK-toh-SORE-us· “night lizard”
🪽 Pterosaur🕰️ Cretaceous🐟 piscivore🦴 Nyctosauridae
2.9 m
Length
0.5 m
Height
2 kg
Weight
A small toothless pterosaur bearing an extraordinary antler-like head crest — a huge L-shaped structure that may have carried a sail of skin. It soared over the Late Cretaceous seas of North America. A pterosaur, not a dinosaur.
When
Late Cretaceous, ~85 million years ago
Found in
United States
Discovered
Othniel Charles Marsh, 1876
Did you know?
- Sported a giant antler-shaped head crest, perhaps with a skin sail.
- Its toothless jaws were suited to snatching fish in flight.
- Lacked the wing-finger claws that most other pterosaurs had.
Artwork: Dmitry Bogdanov (crest fixed by FunkMonk), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.