Ages of Pterosaurs Pterosaurs
Pterosaurs have been around from the Upper Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous. This is a vast timescale and during that time the continents have moved considerably on the Earth's tectonic Plates. For much of this time the super-continents of Eurasia and Gondwana were intact. The continents as we know them were starting to form in the Cretaceous Era.
The pterosaur species can be found on the following pages;
Upper Cretaceous
Lower Cretaceous
Upper Jurassic
Middle Jurassic
Lower Jurassic
Triassic
The earliest pterosaurs are found in deposits of Norian age form the Triassic Era. When they appear, they are fully evolved flying animals. The origin of the pterosaurs is not fully understood but indications suggest Ornithodire ancestry.
The Jurassic was the age when pterosaurs were the dominant flying creatures. They evolved from the long tailed forms to the short tailed forms, both types co-existing in the Upper Jurassic.
Lower Cretaceous forms show some remarkable adaptations, but the number of species falls as the birds become more dominant. During the Upper Cretaceous, the main pterosaur families are of very large species. These large animals did not appear to have any competition from birds.
At the end of the Cretaceous (at the K-T boundary) the pterosaurs become extinct. They were already an order in decline and they could not survive the severe environmental changes at this time.