abbyhoward

Extinct Creatures-- Pterodaustro

Added 2016-09-28 02:12:30 +0000 UTC

Here we have Pterodaustro, a cute small friend who has around 1000 teeth. Pterodaustro lived in South America during the early Cretaceous, and probably used its long bristle-like teeth to sift through water and silt for tasty invertebrates and other small organisms. So actually, that little drawing of it dipping into the water is probably pretty inaccurate!

Most pterosaurs ate fish, though paleontologists are still trying to figure out their exact method of nabbing fish from the water. We have ruled out a few methods-- they probably weren't good divers, so they didn't dive down to grab fishies like some water birds do, and they didn't feed by skimming their mouths along the water's surface, either (their necks weren't really built for it). It's possible they just nabbed fish when they saw them, no skimming involved.

But Pterodaustro, in its many-toothed glory, probably hung out in shallow areas, taking big gulps of water and using its teeth to filter out the crunchy tasty bits. And that is why I have chosen to highlight these special and interesting beasts.

See you tomorrow for more new and strange pterosaurs,

-Abby