'Ash-winged dawn goddess' is oldest pterosaur ever discovered in North America — and it was small enough to sit 'on your shoulder'

Eotephradactylus mcintireae lived alongside fellow evolutionary newcomers, including turtles, as well as more ancient animal lineages, such as giant amphibians and armored crocodile relatives. (Image credit: Illustration by Brian Engh.)

Researchers have unearthed the oldest pterosaur ever discovered in North America and named it the "ash-winged dawn goddess."

The 209 million-year-old pterosaur was among a cache of more than 1,000 Triassic fossils extracted from rocks in the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Eotephradactylus mcintireae is partly named after volcanic ash found in the fossil bed and Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn, because it evolved near the beginning, or dawn, of pterosaurs' evolutionary history.