Queensland Pterosaur

  • Updated
    30/06/26
  • Read time
    2 minutes
Australia's extinct animals, the Queensland Pterosaur Click to enlarge image
The Queensland Pterosaur is a flying reptile that lived along the coast of Australia's inland sea. Its wings were made of a skin membrane supported mostly by a single enormous finger. Image: Dr Anne Musser
© A Musser

Fast Facts

  • Size Range
    Wingspan: about 2-4m

The Queensland Pterosaur is one of the best-known Australian pterosaurs. However, a pterosaur from Western Australia was much bigger, with a wingspan of 7 metres. The Queensland Pterosaur lived 110 million years ago, early Cretaceous.

Identification

The Queensland Pterosaur is a flying reptile that cruised the air currents above the coast of Australia's inland sea. It probably dived down to snap up fish, as some large sea birds do today.

Like other pterosaurs, its wings were made of a skin membrane supported mostly by a single enormous finger. For the Queensland Pterosaur, a broken finger could spell disaster. Pterosaurs have no close living relatives.

Fossil site

Part of a fossilised jaw, a shoulder girdle and a backbone of the Queensland Pterosaur was discovered in 1979 near the Hamilton River in western Queensland.