noun
pterosaur
Refers to the extinct flying reptiles of the Mesozoic era. Common in paleontology and popular science contexts.
翼竜は恐竜ではないが、同時代に生息していた。
Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but they lived in the same era.
博物館で翼竜の化石を見た。
I saw a pterosaur fossil at the museum.
恐竜 means 'dinosaur', a different group of reptiles. 翼竜 specifically refers to flying reptiles (pterosaurs).
Compound of 翼 (よく, 'wing') and 竜 (りゅう, 'dragon'). The term was coined in Japanese to translate the Western scientific concept of pterosaurs.