Pteranodon

Classification

Diet	Piscivore
Habitat	Aerial
Era	Late Cretaceous
Family	Pteranodontidae
Genus	Pteranodon
Bio Group	Small Carnivore

Size

Height (m)	2
Length (m)	3
Weight (kg)	55

Rating

Base Appeal	65
Appeal (Per $1MM)	152.9
Appeal (Per Hectare)	130.0

Pteranodon

Median

Stats

Lifespan	41 - 70
Resilience	84
Attack	0
Defence	0
Medical Dart Resistance	60
Sedative Resistance	60
Poison Resistance	155

Environmental Needs

Comfort threshold	80%
Grassland (m²)	14800	74%
Forest (m²)	5200	26%

Cohabitation Preferences

Social Group	2 - 6
Ideal Population	0 - 20

Unlock requirements

Unlocked by retrieving the fossil from one of the following dig sites:

Dig Sites	Fossil Quality	Fossil Quantity	Locations	Duration	Cost
Smoky Hill Chalk	★	2	North America \| USA \| Kansas	02:00	$75,000
	★★	5
	★★★	3
Pierre Shale	★★★	4	North America \| USA \| Montana	02:00	$60,000
	★	1
	★★	5

Incubation

Duration	03:00 - 03:20
Cost	425,000

Disease

Immune	None
Susceptible	None

Description

Pteranodon is a genus of late Cretaceous pterosaur, flying reptiles that - while not dinosaurs themselves - share the clade Avemetatarsalia with dinosaurs. The name is derived from Greek meaning "wing without tooth". With wingspans over 7 metres, these reptiles would have been extremely light and delicate in order to be able to fly.It is likely that Pteranodons were coastal animals that roosted offshore, out of reach of predators. Fossil evidence suggests a toothless jaw with a pouch of skin that held fish, like modern pelicans, and a crest that could have acted as a counterbalance when skimming the water's surface.

Discovery

The first pteranodon fossils, the first of any pterosaurs discovered outside of Europe, were discovered by the American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in Kansas. The specimens were collected from 1870 to 1872, among other marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, and consisted of skulls, wings, and finger bones. Marsh named the new species Pteranodon longiceps, with the specific name referring to the "long head" of the animal.

Paleoecology

At the time of the Pteranodon, the areas fossils have been discovered in would have been the Western Interior Seaway, a large inland sea that divided the North American continent in two. This suggests that Pteranodon roosted near the sea and preyed on fish, but the delicate nature of their fossils could also mean that specimens were only able to survive in this limestone.At the time P. longiceps was a very common species, and it shared its environment with other flying animals such as Nyctosaurus and Ichthyornis.