An artist’s interpretation of the newfangled pterosaur snacking on a primitive crocodylomorph known as a sphenosuchian.
Credit: Josh Cotton

CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment on a new Triassic pterosaur.  The pterosaur has yet to be named.  It was found in north eastern Utah, not far from Dinosaur National Monument.  It dates to the Late Triassic, about 210 million years ago.  Pterosaurs are rare in the fossil record, so this is a significant find.

A little more than 200 million years ago, a four-fanged pterosaur flew over the vast desert of Triassic Utah snagging other reptiles with its toothy mouth, until it met its untimely end on the banks of a dried-up oasis, new research finds.

The pterosaur had a massive wingspan of about 4.5 feet (1.3 meters) — about as wide as a 10-year-old child is tall — and sported a total of 110 teeth, four of them inch-long (2.5 centimeters) fangs, said study researcher Brooks Britt, an associate professor of geology at Brigham Young University in Utah.

Brigham Young University student Scott Meek found the specimen, including its skull and bones from its body, in 2014 when he was excavating bones from a 300-lb. (136 kilograms) chunk of sandstone. The chunk came from the Saints and Sinners quarry in Utah near the Colorado border, Britt said.

The other segments of the show are also good.  You can find them all here.