Pteranodon (/tɪˈrænədɒn/; from Greek πτερόν ( pteron, "wing") and ἀνόδων (anodon, "toothless") is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with wingspans over 7 meters (23 feet). They lived during the late Cretaceous geological period of North America. More fossil specimens of Pteranodon have been found than any other pterosaur, with about 1,200 specimens known to science, many of them well preserved with nearly complete skulls and articulated skeletons. Pteranodon were pterosaurs, not dinosaurs, but have become associated in public imagination with the dinosaurs.
Pteranodon in Chicxulub Asteroid Missed[]
Huzzards were large flying reptiles (terries), roughly the size of five or six people lying nose to tail tip. Despite their size, they were scavengers, and didn't attack living people.[1] A superstition arose that you were likely to die soon if a shadow of a huzzard passed over you. Rekek didn't exactly believe it but he didn't exactly disbelieve it either so he made a hand sign to turn away the evil omen when it happened to him.[2]
During Rekek's trip south, riding blunderbuss for Havv, he saw a number of flocks of huzzards. Just out of Cycadia, he noticed some circling over a herd of hornfaces that were threatened by some middle raptors. He also noticed a group riding the updrafts of forming thunderheads. They cavorted across the sky as if for the sheer joy of it.[3]
This did give Rekek warning of trouble. One minute the huzzards were having fun, the next they all winged off straight east. Rekek called Havv's attention to it and he agreed it spelled trouble. Rekek clicked his blunderbuss to half-cock while Havv made sure his eight-shooter was handy.[4]
Huzzards' smaller cousins included ramphies.
See also[]
- Rhamphorhynchus, a smaller Jurassic pterosaur.
- Axehead, a fantasy analog of Pteranodon in "The Mrem Go West."
- Leatherwing, another fictional pterosaur variety from the same story.
References[]
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