Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Pteranodon
/təˈrænədɒn/noun
A large crested Cretaceous flying reptile with a toothless beak.
The Greek roots
πτερόν
pterón
wing
ἀν-
an-
without
ὀδών
odṓn
tooth
Literally: “toothless wing”
The story of the word
Marsh named it in 1876 to correct the impression left by Pterodactylus, whose jaws are full of teeth. His Kansas specimens had a beak like a pelican's and a bony head crest longer than the rest of the skull. The whole name is an absence: wing, without, tooth.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1876
Same family
pterodactylpterosaurodontologymastodon
In a sentence
The museum hung a Pteranodon over the stairwell with a seven-metre wingspan.