New Golden Age for Pterosaurs, Flying Reptiles of the Dinosaur Era

A museum exhibit highlights new knowledge about the strange, magnificent reptiles.

Paleontologists have known about the existence of pterosaurs since the early days of fossil investigation, but researchers are just now getting to know these extinct fliers.

The reptiles are also gaining more attention from the general public. Pterosaurs are often put on exhibit as the "also rans" of the Mesozoic era, presented as window dressing in a world ruled by other, more famous creatures like Tyrannosaurus rex. But this weekend they will fly into the spotlight in the new American Museum of Natural History exhibit "Pterosaur: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs."

Now is the time of the pterosaur.

Pterosaurs thrived through the Mesozoic, leaving behind their bones in rocks dating to 228 to 66 million years ago, a

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