Pterosaurs

This unassuming specimen is probably one of the best in our collections.
It is the lower arm bone of a pterosaur, a winged reptile that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.
It was found in Stonesfield Quarry, Oxfordshire and dates to the mid-Jurassic, around 175-169 million years ago.

This species, Rhamphocephalus bucklandi, was small with a wingspan of less than half a metre.
However, some pterosaurs were much larger. With a wingspan of 12 metres or more, Quetzalcoatlus was the size of a small aeroplane. And a specimen found in Mexico in 2005 had an estimated wingspan of 18 metres, the biggest airborne animal ever!