Talk:Nyctosaurus

In popular culture
Nyctosaurus appeared in episodes 1 and 6 of the Walking with special series Prehistoric Park. However, the pterosaurs seen are noticeably larger than the real animals, and were closer in size to Pteranodon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.36.137.134 (talk) 01:35, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Crested specimens
CFLeon has suggested the sentence in the intro "One species, not currently referred one of the named species of Nyctosaurus, is notable for its extraordinarily large antler-like cranial crest." should be changed to "One specimen, not currently referred to a named species of Nyctosaurus, is notable for its extraordinarily large antler-like cranial crest." This is incorrect for two reasons. First, there are at least two described crested specimens, not one. Second, the paper describing them made it clear that they do not belong to a new species. It simply said there was no way to assign them to one of the existing specie,s which may or may not all be the same thing, without a heavy taxonomic revision to see if there are actually multiple species of Nyctosaurus and which ones may be valid. I understand your desire to make this more clear, but we should identify what is not clear and try to correct it in a way that is also factually accurate. MMartyniuk (talk) 00:31, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Objection withdrawn. As originally phrased, it was my understanding that only ONE specimen was being talked about, and therefore I thought that the problem was with the distinction between THE WORDS 'specimen' and 'species'. Thank you for making this clear. CFLeon (talk) 01:26, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Bigger distribution
Some people believe it has also lived in South America (perhaps in a migratory way), but I don't know if this is true or not. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.186.6.124 (talk) 01:56, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
 * What are you talking about? No sources prove it. Nyctosaurus only lived within the North American range of the Niobrara Chalk (Niobrara Formation). JurassicClassic767 (talk) 17:37, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Maybe some kind of reference the the Mexican nyctosaur Muzquizopteryx? FunkMonk (talk) 17:57, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Could be, but that comment by the IP was in 2017, and Muzquizopteryx was already named in 2006, so the IP should already now that Nyctosaurus and Muzquizopteryx are separate genera. JurassicClassic767 (talk) 18:08, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * People unfamiliar with taxonomy will often assume terms like "nyctosaur" refers to the same as Nyctosaurus, or tyrannosaur and Tyrannosaurus, etc. So if they for example saw an informal source state there were nyctosaurs in Mexico, it would probably be thought a fair assumption this referred to the genus. FunkMonk (talk) 18:15, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, if you say it that way, yeah, I think the IP probably just mistoke it as a "nyctosaur". JurassicClassic767 (talk) 18:19, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Hm, I think there's this possible species of Nyctosaurus called N. lamegoi, which actually comes from South America, so perhaps the IP was talking about this species. Jurassic Classic 767  (talk &#124; contribs) 07:55, 6 January 2021 (UTC)