A team led by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has identified a new pterosaur species, Eotephradactylus mcintireae, from a fossil-rich bone bed in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. The discovery, detailed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is based on a delicate jawbone unearthed in 2011 and subsequently analysed with high-resolution scanning technology. Radiometric dating of volcanic ash layers pinpoints the specimen’s age at about 209 million years, making it the oldest known flying reptile in North America and filling a key gap in the late-Triassic fossil record. The creature, named for volunteer preparator Suzanne McIntire, means “ash-winged dawn goddess,” a nod both to the preservation medium and its position near the dawn of pterosaur evolution. Roughly the size of a small seagull, with an estimated one-metre wingspan, the animal’s worn, fang-like teeth indicate a diet of armored fish that populated ancient river channels criss-crossing the equatorial supercontinent Pangaea. Its lightweight, hollow bones are rarely preserved, underscoring the significance of the find. The Arizona site has yielded more than 1,200 fossils, representing at least 16 vertebrate species, seven previously unknown to science, including an early turtle and primitive frog relatives. Together, the assemblage offers a snapshot of a transitional ecosystem shortly before the end-Triassic extinction, when emerging lineages lived alongside groups that soon vanished.