If your knowledge of dinosaurs stretches to that’s a yellow dinosaur toy and that’s a green dinosaur toy then having a dinosaur mad kid can be difficult. And that’s where our Pterodactyl dinosaur toy comes in.
Most children like dinosaurs, but some children really like dinosaurs and looking for dinosaur toys for a kid who knows everything about dinosaurs brings up some interesting questions.
We have written before about how being obsessed with dinosaurs is a sign of intelligence but this doesn’t help when you are trying to find a dinosaur toy for a child with an encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaurs
The good news is that our Pterodactyl dinosaur toy is a great toy for kids who love dinosaurs because it is so unusual. Everyone can buy a T Rex dinosaur but a Pterodactyl dinosaur toy is a lot harder to find.
And the other good thing about our Pterodactyl dinosaur toy is that it will allow you to have a deep and meaningful conversation about dinosaurs which may even impress your dinosaur mad kid.
The first question to ask is whether the Pterodactyl was actually a dinosaur at all?
The answer is that a Pterodactyl is not a dinosaur in the true sense of the word. It is actually a winged reptile. They were cousins of the dinosaurs, living around the same time, but they were reptiles and not dinosaurs.
They were also the first animals (after insects) to use powered flight. Pterodactyls didn’t just leap and glide, they flapped their wings to generate lift and travel through the air.
Once you have gone through the question of whether the pterodactyl was a dinosaur or not the next question is whether our Pterodactyl toy is a Pterodactyl or a Pteranodon.
As we have said above the pterodactyl is in the family of pterosaurs and is usually defined as being a winged reptile, and specifically one which has teeth. They lived in the late Jurassic period (the Mesozoic era to be precise) and their fossils were found in Bavaria, Germany. They were carnivorous who fed on small animals.
A pterodactyl were quite small (relatively!) with an estimated wingspan of approx. 1m. Their skull was long and thin as you see on our pterodactyl toy and had approx. 90 narrow teeth. They were more similar to modern day crocodiles rather than birds as it is thought that they actually walked on four legs. They were carnivorous and fed on small animals.
In contrast the Pteranodon is a winged reptile with no teeth who lived in the late Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. Their fossils were found not in Europe but in America, mainly states such as Kansas, Alabama and Wyoming.
They were very large with a wingspan of over 7m and the males were a lot larger than the females. They fed on fish rather than small animals.
Neither the Pterodactyls nor the Pteranodons had feathers.
So what is the answer to whether our Pterodactyl is a pterodactyl dinosaur toy or a Pteranodon toy? That is definitely up for you and your child to debate!
