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Piranha Ptoothed Pterosaur

Galvasean

Please excuse the forced alliteration

One for the books: A nastier than your average pterosaur called Gwawinapterus beardi, with teeth resembling those of modern day piranha fish. It had a predicted wingspan of ten feeth and could well have been a menacing monster of the Cretaceous skies.

The teeth look a little bit like piranha teeth the way that they are packed really close together."

The teeth are positioned to towards the front of the snout (anterior), as to what this Pterosaur fed on remains a mystery, but it has been suggested that it may have scavenged carcases using its strong teeth and long beak to nip off pieces of meat that other scavengers could not reach. Although a predatory habit, swooping down on other Pterosaurs, small mammals and lizards has also not been ruled out.

Full story here.

Image by Victoria Arbour

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Comments

Adam Khor

I find it interesting that no pterosaur has ever been described as a big game hunter- you know, swooping down on juvenile dinosaurs or even adult, moderately-sized dinos. I find it difficult to believe that no macropredatory pterosaurs ever evolved- yes, sure, they were light boned and fragile, but so are golden eagles and they manage to kill young goats, deer and even wolves quite well...
Since now we know pterosaurs gave rise to fish eaters, nocturnal nightjar-like insect eaters, fruit eaters (tapejarids?), terrestrial generalist predators (azhdarchids) and even filter feeders (Pterodaustro, Ctenochasma), why not a formidable aerial flesh-eater?

Maybe one day we will find a huge "piranha-toothed" pterosaur with relatively short jaws and a stronger bite, one that the media can call the "T-Rex of the skies"?

Galvasean

Well, Darwinopterus is described as a hawk like pterosaur. Not very big though.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=62543962

Rubecula

Not sure size actually matters as it depends what they fed on. If it was a scavenger it didn't need to be big really. Or if it fed on little creatures it need not have been that big. Although in that case I would assume it would have evolved to be larger.