It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… a dinosaur? Nope to all of the above. This Fossil Friday, let’s talk about pterosaurs—the first animals with bones to evolve powered flight. Though they were related to dinosaurs, pterosaurs evolved on a separate branch of the reptile family tree. They ruled the skies for more than 150 million years, evolving into dozens of different species. Some were as small as a paper airplane while others, like Pteranodon pictured here in the Museum's Hall of Late Dinosaurs circa 1940-1960, had a wingspan of more than 20 ft (6 m).
Along with other large pterosaurs, Pteranodon longiceps was first discovered in western Kansas, near a chalk formation called Monument Rocks. Today the region is dry, but at the time this species lived, about 85 million years ago, central North America was covered by a seaway. This large pterosaur likely spent its days flying over the sea. Unlike early species of pterosaurs, Pteranodon and many other Cretaceous-era species didn’t have any teeth. In fact, its genus name means “winged and toothless,” while the second name, longiceps, means “long-headed.”
Today, you can find Pteranodon in the Hall of Vertebrate Origins. We're open daily from 10 am-5:30 pm! Plan your visit.
Flashback Friday: Originally posted May, 17th 2020
Disability knows no age. Just because someone is young doesn't mean they can't be disabled.
I have several friends who've had to deal with being called liars who are trying to "cheat the system" for years simply because they use mobility aids.
✨🦐Behold the brilliant blue blasts of barf that best baddies in the black of the bay!🦐✨
Okay, it’s technically not barf… This vibrantly vermillion little deep-sea shrimp, Acanthephyra sp., is a savvy spewer that spits up a sparkling secretion to outsmart sneaky shrimp snackers.
That glorious glowing goo is a special fluid it creates in its hepatopancreas (kind of like an all-in-one liver-and-pancreas combo organ), which lights up upon contact with oxygen in the surrounding seawater. By blasting a predator in the face with bioluminescence, it distracts them long enough for the shrimp to make a swift escape!
🎥: Shoutout to our fronds @mbari-blog for the first three clips!
Happy birthday to Junichi Kanemaru, a Japanese voice actor (seiyuu) known for voicing Sonic the Hedgehog himself (for almost 25 years ago) since the original 1998 release of Sonic Adventure on the Sega Dreamcast! 🦔 🌀 👟
This Fossil Friday, let’s get a leg up on the weekend with a colossal limb! This gigantic leg belonged to a sauropod dinosaur. A Museum preparator, standing on a ladder nearby, showcases its enormous size. Known for their long necks and tails, sauropods were the biggest of all dinosaurs and some of the largest animals to have ever walked the planet. One of the very largest, the huge Argentinosaurus, may have grown to a staggering weight of 90 tons (82,000 kg)!
Learn more about dinosaurs at the Museum! Plan your visit.
It's scary that this kit exists. It compares autism to cancer, tells parents to not accept their child's autism, tells them to mourn their VERY LIVING child because they're not neurotypical, and on and on. It's so disturbing.