Is this fragile jawbone a pterosaur or not? Other researchers also had questions about the fossil, unearthed along with thousands of others during a decades-long archaeological dig at a remote bone bed in the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

A Smithsonian-led team of researchers have discovered North America's oldest known pterosaur, the winged reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight.

Eotephradactylus mcintireae’ is the oldest-known flying reptile from the continent and roamed the skies 209 million years ago.