Environments
32 fossil formations and ancient environments — the lagoons, seaways and floodplains where pterosaurs lived, died and were preserved.
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Allen Formation
ArgentinaFishing raptors and armored titanosaurs roamed the Argentine forests and riversides of Argentina at the close of the Dinosaur Age, while aerial giants soared overhead.
1 genus -
Bissekty Formation
UzbekistanA very diverse fauna from Uzbekistan, dating back to the beginning of the Late Cretaceous.
1 genus -
Blue Lias
EnglandOne of the first well-explored fossil sites in Europe, the vast Lias Group fossil beds have revealed an incredible variety of Early Jurassic life.
1 genus -
Cambridge Greensand Formation
EnglandThis pristine marine locality was home to some of the greatest taxonomic blunders ever in pterosaur science.
6 genera -
Crato Formation
BrazilBrazil's tropical lagoons and swamps were home to an incredible array of pterosaurs, fish and plants, and this formation is no different.
5 genera -
Csehbanya Formation
HungaryAn odd European environment, Csehbanya was ruled by the most surprising carnivore ever: A freshwater mosasaur that acted like a reptilian seal.
1 genus -
Dashanpu Formation
ChinaReal dragons roamed the Chinese forests, serpentine-necked giants that ate from the tallest trees and brandished crushing clubs on their tails.
1 genus -
Goio-Ere Formation
BrazilThe Brazilian deserts were filled with odd little pterosaurs. They lived together and died together among vast and desolate dunes.
2 genera -
Hateg Island
RomaniaDwarf dinosaurs walked in the shadow of monstrous pterosaurs on this paradoxical island.
4 genera -
Jiufotang Formation
ChinaShiny black four-winged hawks hunted through the trees here, and pterosaurs filled in every imaginable niche in these temperate swampy forests.
19 genera -
Karabastau Svita
KazakhstanThe Kazakh forests were home to some of the best-known pterosaur fossils, the kind of revolutionary fossils that changed our opinion about them forever.
2 genera -
Kem Kem Beds
Morocco, AlgeriaA world of land and sea, where weird fishing dinosaurs and monster crocs fish battled one another for supremacy over this strange world.
6 genera -
Khouribga Phosphates
MoroccoThis site in Morocco preserves some of the world's last pterosaurs
5 genera -
Kimmeridge Clay Formation
EnglandThe English seas were once home to terrifying swimming reptiles with incredible jaws and teeth while nearly dragon-like pterosaurs flew in the skies above them.
1 genus -
Kössen Formation
Germany, SwitzerlandNot the best-known of all rock formations but certainly provided a bonus with a beautiful and bizarre early pterosaur.
1 genus -
Lagarcito Formation
ArgentinaStringy-toothed flying reptiles filtered their tiny food from the lakes and rivers of Argentina in the Early Cretaceous.
1 genus -
Lancian formations of North America
North AmericaFrom cypress swamps and redwood forests stalked by the tremendous Tyrannosaurus to dry southern plains filled with eighty-ton titans, North America was an incredible place over 66 million years ago. And the skies were ruled by the biggest flying creature of all time.
1 genus -
Lianmuqin Formation
ChinaThe Early Cretaceous plains and mudflats of China were haunted by the ghosts of the world's last plated stegosaurs and the 'ugliest pterosaur of all time', a beast with crushing teeth that ate the hardest shellfish.
3 genera -
Morrison Formation
USAFamous for its giant dinosaurs, the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation is home to a few fragmentary pterosaurs.
3 genera -
Niobrara Formation
North AmericaIt was a sea of real leviathans, a time when fifty-foot marine reptiles dominated the water alongside fanged tarpons, saber-toothed herrings and massive flying reptiles.
4 genera -
Posidonia Shale
GermanyGigantic marine beasts looking somewhat like a monster dolphin dominated the seas, consuming everything in their path while tiny dwarf dinosaurs grazed on the islands above the waves.
2 genera -
Santana Formation
BrazilFishing dinosaurs stalked the lagoons and swamps of Brazil, alongside a myriad of the strangest flying monsters ever.
14 genera -
Seefeld Beds
AustriaThis fossil site in Tyrol, Austria, is not the best-known of Triassic sites but thanks to the discovery of Austriadactylus, is among the most important.
1 genus -
Solnhofen Limestone Formation
GermanyThe iconic 'first bird' lived close to some of the most famous Jurassic flying reptiles ever on inhospitable desert islands stuck in salty lagoons.
13 genera -
Tangshang Formation
ChinaOne of the greatest revolutions in azhdarchid behavior happened here in the Late Cretaceous.
1 genus -
Tarrant Formation
Texas, USAA marine formation from the beginnings of the Late Cretaceous.
1 genus -
Tendaguru Formation
TanzaniaAn incredibly well-known Late Jurassic formation from Tanzania. Equal in age to the famed Morrison Formation of western North America and with many similar forms of wildlife.
1 genus -
Tiaojishan Formation
ChinaThese temperate Jurassic forests were home to real dragons, but none was larger than a modern house cat.
19 genera -
Toolebuc Formation
AustraliaThis Australian environment was as far south as today's Falkland islands and was home to two types of pterosaurs.
2 genera -
Two Medicine Formation
North AmericaFamous for its “good mother lizard,” Maiasaura and other dinosaurs, the Late Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation is home to at least one species of pterosaur.
2 genera -
Wessex Formation
EnglandThe Wessex Formation preserves an incredibly diverse freshwater fauna of fish and crocodiles, while some of the most famous British dinosaurs roamed the land.
3 genera -
Yixian Formation
ChinaThese cool forests of the Far East were full of the oddest birds ever, and even a fluffy cousin of T.rex that made life just a little more hazardous for most.
15 genera
