Very Rare Putative Pterosaur Femur Bone from Hell Creek

Description: This is a Pterosaur femur bone. The species is unnamed, as no complete skeleton has ever been found to describe. This is a very rare find and would be of particular interest to the specialist collector.

Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known from the fossil record to have evolved powered flight. Their wings comprised a membrane of skin, muscle, and other tissues that stretched from the ankles to an elongated fourth finger. Early species had long, fully toothed jaws and long tails, while later one had a dramatically short tail, and some even lacked teeth.

Recently the Fossil Mall associates purchased a large lot of dinosaur, reptile and mammal material from our primary collector. He lives in Montana and has over fifteen years of field collecting experience. Ten days were spent in obtaining this lot. The fossils were discovered in Cretaceous stream channel deposits. Some were surface collected as float, many were partially eroded out of the low-lying surrounding gullies and bad lands. The work of discovery continued upon his return home. There the specimens had to be cleaned and identified, a long and tedious process that lasted many days. Upon completion, all the specimens were photographed, notated and submitted to us at the Fossil Mall for consideration of purchase. Needless to say, we bought the whole batch.

A word regarding the legality of these fossils. Our provider only collects on private ranch and farmlands of Montana and South Dakota. His relationships with these landowners have been cultivated over many years of door knocking and often difficult negotiations. Our collector, in the beginning stage of a possible collecting arrangement, cannot even contemplate a deal until he has walked the land holdings to discover if there are ancient remains to be found.