Flying Reptiles Ruled England's Skies: Pterosaur Diversity Revealed

About 110 million years ago, flying reptiles soared across the skies of England. Yet it wasn't just one species, and they didn't all look the same by any stretch of the imagination. Researchers have now discovered the huge diversity of the creatures that once lived in England.

These flying reptiles are called pterosaurs, which existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous period. While they lived during the time of the dinosaurs, though, they weren't dinosaurs themselves. Instead, these creatures descended from a different common ancestor. With hollow bones like birds and with a fleshy membrane that extended between the bones of their wings, like bats, these animals once ruled the skies.

The first pterosaurs from the Cretaceous of England were described by British naturalists Richard Owen and Harry Seeley in the 19^th century. Yet little was known about the diversity of the group at the time; this resulted in the description of dozens of species based on very fragmentary remains. Recent findings, though, show new hints at a much greater diversity than was first described.

Researchers have analyzed the fossil remains from a deposit known as the Cambridge Greensand, located in the eastern part of the country. This area was once underwater; bones that were already fossilized and buried were eroded, exposed to weather and then reburied. Because of the unusual geographical history of the site, the fossil remains present a temporal mixing of the pterosaur species, which means that these remains come from all different time periods.

So what did the scientists find? Pterosaurs were remarkably diverse in their appearances. Some species had head crests of different sizes and shapes, while others had none. Most had large teeth at the tips of their snouts and were fish eaters, but others had smaller teeth, which might mean that they had different feeding preferences. In all, scientists identified 14 different species belonging to at least five different genera.

That's not all the scientists found. The various species were closely related to ones unearthed in northeastern Brazil and eastern China, but weren't the same.

"This is very interesting, especially because the continents had already drifted apart," said Taissa Rodrigues, one of the researchers, in a news release. "If these animals were migratory, we would expect to find the same species in all these deposits." Instead, the scientists discovered that each location had its own species and genera.

The findings reveal that pterosaurs were widespread across the entire planet millions of years ago. These animals must have been hugely important in ancient ecosystems because of this. In addition, the research reveals how diverse these creatures truly were.

The findings are published in the journal ZooKeys.