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).
Rhenanida
The fossil record of Rhenanida is very sparse, with most fossils being isolated tubercles and skull fragments that are identified as being similar to "Gemuendina stuertzi", the most well-known rhenanid, known from several specimens from the Hunsruck slates. Given the rhenanids' worldwide distribution, this paupacity probably did not reflect a scarcity of living individuals (when the order was alive), but reflects the fact that rhenanid armor disintegrated into isolated fragments, and scattered soon after the owner's demise. Most fossils of rhenanids are from the Early Devonian, primarily in the United States and Germany. The recently discovered "Nefudina qalibahensis" is known from Northeastern Saudi Arabia. "Asterosteus stenocephalus" is known from Mid Devonian Ohio. Another species of rhenanid was "Bolivosteus chacomensis", of the Lower to Middle Devonian Malvinokaffric Fauna of Western Gondwana, in what is now Bolivia, South America. The youngest rhenanid, "Jagorina pandora" is known from Upper Devonian Germany.