At the end of the Jurassic, Europe is an archipelago of semi-arid islands, surrounded by warm seas.  Although few dinosaurs live in these places, the islands are a haven for pterosaurs, which congregate here in the thousands.  Pictured above is a small percentage of the islands' typical pterosaur population.

    On a large island, which will one day become central Europe, a flock of red-and-black Ctenochasma elegans congregate along with three slightly larger Gnathosaurus subulatus to dredge the warm water for zooplankton.  The tiny creatures that constitute the bulk of the diet of C. elegans and G. subulatus are strained from the water by the pterosaurs' fine mesh of teeth, providing nourishment and a distinctive red coloring to the animals' fur and wing membranes.

    On the shore, a mixed flock of red-billed Pterodactylus antiquus and yellow-billed Pterodactylus kochi patrol the sand for invertebrates flushed out by the activities of the C. elegans.  One of the P. antiquus has managed to catch a Cycleryon propinquus (a decapod crustacean) in its jaws.

    Within the flock of pterodactyls, two black-and-brown Rhamphorhynchus muensteri stand guard over a dying Mesolimulus walchi horseshoe crab, pecking at the hapless xiphosuran with wickedly pointed red beaks.

    In the immediate foreground, a small mound of sandy soil, elevated from the beach, supports a bracken of Sternopteris , Scleropteris and frilly Stachypteris ferns.  Out of this undergrowth, sprout the tentacular limbs of Echinostrobus, covered with small photosynthetic scales rather than leaves.  A pair of swallow-sized Anurognathus ammoni , one perched on an Echinostrobus and another grasping a Zamites cycad, hungrily eye a blue Aeschnogomphus intermedius dragonfly.  The dragonfly, in turn, keeps its multifaceted orbs locked on a katydid-like Cyrtophylites, which is climbing the highest Echinostrobus stem it can find.

    Large plants are rare on the European islands, but some coniferous trees such as Furcifolium manage to eke out a living.  One of these trees is tilted at a dangerous angle (the sand under its roots having been leached away by tidal action), but still manages to put out a few candalabra-shaped leaves.  A mated pair of black-and-white Scaphognathus crassirostris have built their mud nest on this tree, the male returning periodically to feed fish (in this case, a baby Aspidorhynchus actiformis) to his gravid spouse.  Taking no notice of the smaller pterosaurs below them, two of flamboyantly crested Germanodactylus cristatus pause on the tree to rest before resuming their own hunt for food.

Untill I make individual paintings of these species, all links to pterosaurs refer to David Peters's Pterosaur Homepage .

Other sites containing pertinent information:

• All New Dinosaurs and thier Friends by Robert A. Long and Samuel P. Welles.  Published in 1975 by Bellerophon Books, San Francisco.
• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs, by Dr. Peter Wellnhofer, published in 1991 by Salamander Bookd Limited.
• The Origin and Evolution of Birds (second edition), by Alan Feduccia, published in 1999 by Yale University Press