5.5" Pterosaur Partial Quadrate (Jaw Bone) - Smoky Hill Chalk

This is a 5.5" section of a Pterosaurs (Quadrate) jaw bone still in the chalk it was found in. Pterosaurs (flying reptiles) were the first vertebrates to take wing and evolved during the Late Triassic. Almost all of the known remains of Pteranodon come from the Smoky Hill Chalk of west Kansas. A few are found in the overlying Pierre Shale in Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming. They were superbly adapted for flight, with hollow, air-filled bones, a relatively large, birdlike brain and membranous wings that were supported by the elongated fourth finger of each hand.