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Tupuxuara

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During the Cretaceous period, as in the present day, South America spawned more than its share of large, colorful flying creatures. Tupuxuara is a good example: this large pterosaur had a flat, rounded crest on its head that was richly laced with blood vessels, a good hint that the crest may have changed color seasonally and allowed its owner to signal to the opposite sex. Confusingly, the name Tupuxuara sounds similar to that of another brightly colored pterosaur of the same time and place, Tapejara. In fact, it was once thought that Tupuxuara was a species of Tapejara, but now paleontologists believe that Tupuxuara may have been more closely related to giant pterosaurs of the later Cretaceous period like Quetzalcoatlus.