Smithsonian.com

The pterosaur Lacusovagus as drawn by Mark Witton, one of the contributors to Pterosaur.net.

The great thing about the Internet is that it makes it easy to find out about just about anything. The drawback is that not all that information is accurate. Sites like Wikipedia are handy but are only as good as the information being put into them, but if you are a fan of the prehistoric flying reptiles known as pterosaurs, you’re in luck.

An international team of paleontologists has just launched Pterosaur.net, a new Web site entirely devoted to authoritative information about the extinct dinosaur relatives. From evolution and anatomy to myths and pop culture, the Web site is packed with details about pterosaurs, and a dedicated blog will keep readers updated on new discoveries. It is good to see one of the most popular, but least publicly understood, groups of fossil reptiles getting some attention, and I applaud the efforts of these scientists to reach out to the public directly.