Most likely pterosaur colours

[andrewsaurus rex]

I've been toying with the idea (pun intended) of repainting my Safari Pteranodon.  I plan to do it in overall white with a pale pink bill and crest....inspired by the wandering albatross.

But I got to wondering just how colourful pteranodon and pterosaurs in general, may have been.  Would there colouration have mimicked modern day birds (in a sort of convergent evolution) or would they have been duller coloured, olive drabs, reflecting their reptilian ancestry? 

Opinions?  Is there any science on pterosaur colouration?

[stargatedalek]

Pterosaurs are varied enough that it's safe to say colouration is going to be based on the niche of the individual in question.

Pteranodon is a coastal species that hunted fish by landing on the surface and then diving underwater, so I'd go with something counter-shaded. If birds as small as auks are able to benefit from it than a relatively large pterosaur likely required it to effectively hunt fish underwater.

[andrewsaurus rex]

Interesting, thanks.

I wonder about the effect of the crests on pterosaurs that dove under the water.  For Pteranodon, the crest was slender and probably not much of a problem, but for the closely related Geosternbergia, the crest was large and broad.  Under the water, the crest would impede rapid lateral movements of the head and also make precise movements difficult, both of which would be necessary when pursuing a darting fish.

Perhaps they would dive bomb into the water, their impact stunning potential prey, making scooping them up a simple matter?

[stargatedalek]

Interesting, thanks.

I wonder about the effect of the crests on pterosaurs that dove under the water.  For Pteranodon, the crest was slender and probably not much of a problem, but for the closely related Geosternbergia, the crest was large and broad.  Under the water, the crest would impede rapid lateral movements of the head and also make precise movements difficult, both of which would be necessary when pursuing a darting fish.

Perhaps they would dive bomb into the water, their impact stunning potential prey, making scooping them up a simple matter?

Dive bombing into the water ala gannets is not an easy thing, and even gannets need special adaptations to make that safe. It could be there is some pterosaur out there that is built for it, but Pteranodon and Geosternbergia don't seem to be.

When you are that big with a beak that large, precise lateral movements of your head are probably not a huge concern. It may have even added a small amount of stability, potentially making it easier to swim fast which could more than make up for it.

[HD-man]

I've been toying with the idea (pun intended) of repainting my Safari Pteranodon.  I plan to do it in overall white with a pale pink bill and crest....inspired by the wandering albatross.

But I got to wondering just how colourful pteranodon and pterosaurs in general, may have been.  Would there colouration have mimicked modern day birds (in a sort of convergent evolution) or would they have been duller coloured, olive drabs, reflecting their reptilian ancestry? 

Opinions?  Is there any science on pterosaur colouration?

To quote Bakker (See Dactyls! Dragons of the Air), "Buckland's pictures of dactyls make them look dark and scary. Like bats. But I think he was wrong about the "dark" part. Bats have to be dark because they fly at night. Dactyls were relatives of birds, and most birds fly in daylight.
Birds that fly over oceans and lakes are often white...that's so fish can't see the birds overhead in the light, bright sky. Most dactyl bones are dug from ancient oceans and lakes, so when you draw a dactyl, use a lot of white.
Save your colored pencils for the dactyl head. Puffins are seabirds that have bills colored yellow, orange, and black. Buckland's favorite dactyl...a medium-sized critter called Dimorphodon...had a tall, pinched bill just like a puffin's. So I think Dimorphodon had bright colors, too."

[Newt]

I think your alternatives of "colorful like birds or drab like reptiles" are fundamentally off. Many if not most birds are clad in cryptic browns and grays, just like most reptiles, while many reptiles are brilliantly colored and/or patterned, just like many birds. So, very likely pterosaurs followed the same pattern, with a spectrum from Little Brown Jobbies to living jewels to boldly patterned beasts. There's no reason to think they had the frequent lack of color vision and the limited pigment range that make mammals the dullest of the tetrapods.


If you look at birds that pursue fish underwater today, you will find great variety, from the simple tuxedo countershading of most penguins and alcids to the complex black-and-white patterns of loons to the multicolored plumage of grebes and diving ducks. If pteranodontids were indeed feeding from the air, whether in gannet, pelican, tern, albatross, or the now-debunked skimmer mode, then their body color has even less constraint, as those birds are essentially invisible to their prey until they hit them. I have trouble imagining that Pteranodon or Geosternbergia fed very much like any of these birds - they were very very differently constructed from any of them, not just in their colossal size and the presence of a cranial crest, but in the construction of their tremendous bills. So how did they feed? I truly have no idea. Their bills are more like those of herons than any other extant animal I can think of, but they clearly weren't waders and lacked the heron's spring-loaded neck.


TL;DR - color it how you like, there's no strong reason to prefer one coloration over another.

[Stegotyranno420]

Im not sure,but your best bet is birds. I made a dimorphodon(based on multiple terrestrial and flying seabirds) and i think it might be able to give you a reference for what you are aiming for.

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[andrewsaurus rex]

great discussion guys, very interesting and  helpful thanks.