Pteranodon
"Pteranodon" was the first pterosaur found outside of Europe. Its fossils first were found by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1870, in the Late Cretaceous Smoky Hill Chalk deposits of western Kansas. These chalk beds were deposited at the bottom of what was once the Western Interior Seaway, a large shallow sea over what now is the midsection of the North American continent. These first specimens, YPM 1160 and YPM 1161, consisted of partial wing bones, as well as a tooth from the prehistoric fish "Xiphactinus", which Marsh mistakenly believed to belong to this new pterosaur (all known pterosaurs up to that point had teeth). In 1871, Marsh named the find ""Pterodactylus oweni"", assigning it to the well-known (but much smaller) European genus "Pterodactylus". Marsh also collected more wing bones of the large pterosaur in 1871. Realizing that the name he had chosen had already been used for Harry Seeley's European pterosaur species "Pterodactylus oweni" in 1864, Marsh re-named his giant North American pterosaur Pterodactylus occidentalis, meaning "Western wing finger," in his 1872 description of the new specimen. He also named two additional species, based on size differences: Pterodactylus ingens (the largest specimen so far), and Pterodactylus velox (the smallest).
Patranomodon
The skull fossil of "Patranomodon" was found in the "Eodicynodon" Assemblage Zone of South Africa, belonging to the lowest biozone of the Beaufort Group. The Beaufort Group time period extends from the middle of the Permian to the early Triassic era. It is one of the three main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in what today is southern Africa. Rubidge and Hopson were the first to discover the skull of "Patranomodon". These paleobiologists also named "Patranomodon" and were the first to publish literature on it starting in 1990. The most abundant remains of "Patranomodon" were found on the Eastern Cape of South Africa; however, fossil parts were also found in Europe, China, as well as India, which indicated migration occurring among these terrestrial creatures. The paleontologist Nyaphuli collected the fossil of this creature in South Africa and gave it the species name of ""Patranomodon nyaphuli"".
"Patranomodon" have a short exposure of their palatine and premaxilla, which creates a shorter face compared to other anomodontons. This gives "Patranomodon" a shorter facial structure, shorter in length as well as small in size. They also have a reduced tabular, a slit-like interpterygoid vacuity, three sacral vertebrae, and a screw-shape jaw. The genus has many features indicating its herbivorous behavior: the division of the external adductor muscles in the jaw into two separate components, the medial and lateral side, as well as using a propalinal jaw movement while feeding on plant material.