Pterodaustro was a Cretaceous pterodactyloid pterosaur from South America, living 105 million years ago.

Stephanie Abramowicz

Bay State Replicas

Pterodaustro probably waded in shallow water like flamingos, straining food with its tooth comb, a method called "filter feeding". Once it caught its food, Pterodaustro probably mashed it with the small, globular teeth present in its upper jaw.

According to Robert Bakker, like with flamingos, this pterosaur's diet may have resulted in a pink hue. Thus, it is often dubbed the "flamingo pterosaur".

Alessandro Abate

At least two specimens of Pterodaustro have been found with gizzard stones in the stomach cavity, the first ever reported for any pterosaur. These clusters of small stones with angled edges support the idea that Pterodaustro ate mainly small, hard-shelled aquatic crustaceans using filter-feeding. Such invertebrates are abundant in the sediment of the fossil site.

Fernback Museum

Nobu Tamura

A study of the growth stages of Pterodaustro concluded that juveniles grew relatively fast in their first two years, attaining about half of the adult size. Then they reached sexual maturity, growing at a slower rate for four to five years until there was a determinate growth stop.

Luis Chiappe

In 2004 a Pterodaustro embryo in an egg was reported. The egg was elongated, 22 millimetres across and its mainly flexible shell was covered with a thin layer of calcite.