PNAS Science Sessions18 Aug 2025

North America's oldest pterosaur fossil

A pterosaur and its ecosystem at the end of the Triassic

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Kay Behrensmeyer and Ben Kligman describe what a fossil bone bed in Arizona reveals about a 209-million-year-old pterosaur and its ecosystem.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[01:01] Paleoecologist Kay Behrensmeyer and paleontologist Ben Kligman describe the discovery of this fossil bone bed.
•[03:10] Kligman and Behrensmeyer introduce a previously undescribed pterosaur.
•[05:00] They talk about what this specimen says about the ecology and evolution of pterosaurs.
•[06:15] Kligman and Behrensmeyer talk about the importance of studying this fossil community.
•[07:52] They explain how their methods can improve paleontology and discovery of small fossils.
•[09:08] Behrensmeyer and Kligman talk about the study's caveats and limitations.
•[10:10] Conclusion.

About Our Guests:

Kay Behrensmeyer
Curator of Paleobiology
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Ben Kligman
Postdoctoral Fellow
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505513122

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