New Species of Pterosaur Jawbone Found

Researchers led by the Smithsonian found a new species of pterosaur in the Petrified Forest National Park when they were trying to find fossils of prehistoric precursors to mammals but instead discovered an entire Triassic ecosystem. It was unearthed in 2011, but better and new technology discovered it was a new species.

The new pterosaur is called Eotephradactylus mcintireae and was named by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The generic name means “ash-winged dawn goddess”. Its name hints that volcanic ash that helped preserve its bones in the ancient riverbed. It also references the animal’s spot close to the bottom of the pterosaur evolving tree and its discoverer, Suzanne McIntire, a volunteer for 18 years and retired in 2024 says Phys.org.

209 million years ago, this part of Northeastern Arizona was in the middle of Pangaea, a supercontinent when the Earth was not split into many continents. It sat just above the equator. The half-dry climate was intersected with small rivers and creeks and some flooding was very likely. The water washed the rocks and volcanic ash into the channels with the bones in the sediment.

The leader of the research team and paleontologist, Dr. Ben Kligman, said that the fossil bed has preserved evidence of an evolutionary “transition” 200 million years ago. “The site captures the transition to more modern terrestrial, or earthly vertebrate communities where we start seeing groups that thrive later in the Mesozoic living alongside these older animals that do not make it past the Triassic,” said Dr. Kligman.

The ancient rocks also have other bones, teeth, and fish scales. They even contain coprolite, which is fossilized poo that is valuable because scientists can use it to know what ancient animals ate. Researchers have also found and described the fossils of an ancient extinct turtle with spike-like armor and a shell that could fit inside a shoebox. The tortoise-like animal lived around the same period as the world’s oldest known turtle who lived in Germany.

“This suggests that turtles rapidly dispersed, or distributed across Pangaea, which is surprising for an animal that is likely walking at a slow pace.” Kligman said from SciTechDaily. “Our ability to recognize pterosaur bones in [these ancient] river deposits suggests there may be other similar deposits from Triassic rocks around the world that may also preserve pterosaur bones.”

Scientists say the hot and dry badlands, the pterosaur and turtle discovery site has preserved a “snapshot”, or a freeze in time of an ecosystem that shows us how extinct animals lived, where there are groups of animals that are extinct living next to animals we know today, and