pterosaurus

plural pterosauruses · plural pterosauri

1. Synonym of pterosaur.

   The muscles that pterosauruses used to fly were not as developed as those that birds use today.

   1994, Debby Slier, Dinosaurs (World of Knowledge), New York, N.Y.: Modern Publishing, →ISBN, page 15, column 2

   5 more examples

   The pterosauri flew from tree to tree, spreading out the flying membrane that stretched from their enormously long fifth finger to the legs, and even to the tail.

   1906, Conrad Guenther, translated by Joseph McCabe, “Reptiles and Amphibians”, in Darwinism and the Problems of Life: A Study of Familiar Animal Life, London: A. Owen & Co. […], page 120

   Now, according to the geological successions, we have, first of all, the invertebrates (Protozoic Epoch—Cambrian Period), then the vertebrates, and these in the following order: first, the Cyclostomes (Silurian), then the cartilaginous fish (Devonian), then the stegocephalian amphibians (Carboniferous) , followed by the reptiles, whose apogee is reached in the Secondary, or Mesozoic, Age with the ichthyosauri, the stegosauri and the pterosauri: […]

   1959 April 14, Ernesto Ruffini, translated by Francis O’Hanlon, “Proofs Adduced in Favor of Evolution”, in The Theory of Evolution Judged by Reason and Faith, New York, N.Y.: Joseph F. Wagner, Inc.; London: B. Herder, pages 18–19

   We’re interested in the last, the Cainozoic era. This is the era that really concerns us. This was the time when the pterodactyls and pterosauri flew south.

   1984, Martin Crouch, Robert Porter, “Ideology and the Russian Tradition”, in Understanding Soviet Politics through Literature: A Book of Readings, London: George Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 19

   Or, while marvelling at the ingenuity of Nature, one can sing incantations that cause the clouds to assume fantastic shapes: dinosaurs, glyptodons and pterosauruses frolic across the sky.

   1987, Alberto Manguel, Gianni Guadalupi, “Dreams, Lake of”, in The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, expanded edition, San Diego, Calif.: Harvest/HBJ, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, →ISBN, page 429, columns 2–3

   Pterosauruses are giant birds that lived during prehistoric times. In a book called Dinosaurs in Your Backyard, author William Mannetti tries to prove why the Pteranodon is the most interesting kind of pterosaurus.

   1993, Linda Ward Beech; James Beers; Ronald L. Cramer; W. Dorsey Hammond; Lida F. Lim; Patricia Muncy; John Prejza, Jr.; DeWayne Triplett, Flight (Scott, Foresman Spelling), Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman and Company, →ISBN, page 140

   Synonyms: pterosaur