#pteranodontid

Pteranodon lived around the Western Interior Seaway, a massive sea that split North America in two during the Late Cretaceous into the Early Paleocene. With wings shaped like modern day albatrosses, Pteranodons were likely gliders who relied on thermals, but did seem to be more capable of sustained flapping. As one would expect, their diet was made up mostly of fish, though they may have eaten invertebrates as well. With their more heavy build, they could probably dive into the water like modern day gannets, folding up their wings and plunging beneath the waves, snatching up fish with their pointed, birdlike beaks. Pteranodon crests were most likely for display, as there was variation between not only males and females, but also individual males. As females were twice as common as males, they were probably polygynous, with males competing for the mating rights in rookeries of females. Competition was likely not physical, and instead would depend on females determining the age and fitness of males based on the size of their crest.

Pteranodon has been found in both the Niobrara Formation and the younger Pierre Shale Formation. Some possible fragments from the Mooreville Formation and Merchantville Formation also exist. While Pteranodon was much more common, it would have lived alongside, and possibly competed with, the fork-crested pterosaur Nyctosaurus and the toothed seabird Ichthyornis. It is probable that Pteranodon lived in offshore rookeries, raising their flaplings far from land-based predators, as most fossils are found far from what would have been the Interior Seaway’s coastline. Under the waves, Pteranodon would have hunted a variety of fish, ammonites, and squid. It would have come across sea turtles such as Toxochelys, plesiosaurs such as Styxosaurus, and flightless birds like Parahesperornis. It would have had to look out for mosasaurs like Tylosaurus and sharks like Cretoxyrhina. Aside from birds, most Pteranodons would rarely come across dinosaurs. Their main exposure to dinosaurs would be corpses, like that of the hadrosaur Claosaurus, being swept out to sea.