Toothy Texas Pterosaur

Galvasean

Hot on the heels of a new type of pachecephalosaur comes the latest discovery from Cretaceous Texas, a pterosaur named Aetodactylus halli. With a 9 foot wingspan and a mouth full of sharp teeth, Aetodactylus sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but would probably have been relatively harmless, unless of course you were a fish.

The pterosaur had a relatively slender jaw filled with thin, needlelike teeth, which might have helped the creature pluck fish from the shallow sea that once covered the region, a new study says.

"It was hanging out near the ocean, and that is probably where it derived its food from," said study leader Timothy Myers, a paleontologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

By comparing the jawbone to more complete pterosaur fossils, Myers and his team think A. halli was a medium-size animal with a nine-foot (three-meter) wingspan and a short tail.

Full article here.