Pterosaurs evolved from small, wingless reptiles called lagerpetids, fossils suggest

Pterosaurs may have dominated the skies for 150 million years, but how they gained their wings has been a mystery.

Now, recently unearthed fossils may help fill a gap in the flying predators’ family tree, according to a study published in Nature today.

The skulls and skeletons are of a group of ancient reptiles — lagerpetids — that trotted around the supercontinent Pangea between 237 and 210 million years ago.

These two-legged, wingless…