The Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi is in Stock

By |2023-11-23T07:24:37+00:00February 23rd, 2019|Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Everything Dinosaur Products, Main Page, Photos of Everything Dinosaur Products, Press Releases|0 Comments

The Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi is in Stock

The Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi model is in stock at Everything Dinosaur.  Everything Dinosaur team members have been able to secure some additional models from a product line that was retired several years ago.  Limited numbers are available and staff have been busy emailing customers on our priority reserve list, letting them know that this flying reptile figure is available and that one has been set aside for them.

Currently in Stock at Everything Dinosaur – Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi Model

Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi
The Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi model.

Pteranodon sternbergi

To view the range of Bullyland prehistoric animal figures and replicas in stock at Everything Dinosaur, including the Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi model: Bullyland Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals.

A Long Retired Bullyland Figure

A lot has happened since this excellent pterosaur figure went out of production.  The range of flying reptile figures has certainly increased but as far as we are aware, no mainstream manufacturer has introduced a P. sternbergi model.  A lot has also happened when it comes to research into the Pterosauria and the Pteranodon genus.  Although arguably, Pteranodon is perhaps the best known pterosaur, both with palaeontologists and the wider public, after all, there are in excess of 1,100 Pteranodon fossils in museums all over the world, there has been a dramatic revision of the fossil material ascribed to this genus.

Flattened Like a Pancake

Visitors to museums seeing a beautifully modelled Pteranodon replica, often dangling from the ceiling, can get the wrong idea when it comes to the fossil material associated with this genus.  The three-dimensional replicas do not portray the reality.  The vast majority of fossil material comes from the Pierre Shale Formation and the Smoky Hill Chalk member of the Niobrara Formation, both marine deposits and Pteranodon fossils tend to be crushed, highly fragmentary, distorted and flattened like a pancake.

Unloading a Lifesize Pteranodon Replica at the Field Museum (Chicago, USA)

Unloading a Pteranodon.
A life-size Pteranodon replica is unloaded.  Is this P. sternbergi or a representative of the genus Geosternbergia?  Although the fossil record of assigned Pteranodon material is extensive, the fossils tend to be fragmentary and crushed.

Picture credit: (c) Field Museum, photo by John Weinstein

Geosternbergia sternbergi or Pteranodon sternbergi

The genus was erected back in 1876, when Othniel C. Marsh named Pteranodon longiceps.  Over the years, several species have been added to this genus, one of which was Pteranodon sternbergi, named in 1966 from fossil material found in 1952.  The species name honours the Sternberg family, who between them have made a tremendous contribution to North American palaeontology.

Such a high profile pterosaur genus with a wealth of fossils to study, has led to academics focusing on this genus and large numbers of scientific papers about Pteranodon have been produced.  Inevitably, numerous revisions have been suggested.  For example, it has been proposed that the fossil material represents a total of four different flying reptiles (Kellner 2010) and this led to the idea that P. sternbergi, was so different from P. longiceps that it should be assigned a separate genus.  Hence the use of the genus Geosternbergia (G. sternbergi) often regarded as a subgenus, in recent literature.

Much of the Revision of Pteranodontidae Fossil Material is Based on the Morphology of the Crest and Mandible

The Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi model.
The shape and size of the crest and subtle differences in the mandible has led to a revision of Pteranodon fossil material.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

In essence, over the period of time that the Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi has been out of production, a revision of the fossil material has led to the placement of material formerly ascribed to P. sternbergi being assigned by some scientists to Geosternbergia.  The debate over the taxonomy of the pterosaur that honours the Sternberg family (and other Pteranodontia material), is likely to continue, at least, for the time being collectors have the chance to acquire the model.

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