I rediscovered this image in my files this week and thought it would make for a great short post. It was done for me by palaeoartist / palaeontologist Andrea Cobbett (who is working on her PhD at Bath University) as part of a series of articles on pterosaurs I did for the kids geology magazine Rockwatch.
This is the head of Pteranodon sternbergi, by far the lesser known of the two species of Pteranodon. The infinitely more familiar P. longiceps has the elongate crest that extends to the rear and which largely mirrors the general shape of the head, whereas P. sternbergi has a far wider, shorter and more erect crest. Apart from that there is little to separate the two species, but it’s a pretty dramatic difference.
I really like the colors! Not a big fan of how the outline of the skull so dramatically shows through the skin, but hey.
It might be a bit much, but they would probably look like this. The jaw muscles are inside the skull and with no feathers to fluff up the head birds would look a lot like this. Any big amount of tissues between the skin and bone would just act as a source of heat loss which is unlikely to be great for a big ocean going flyer so the skin would porbably be tight to the skull in this manner.