This timeline of pterosaur research is a chronologically ordered list of important fossil discoveries, controversies of interpretation, and taxonomic revisions of pterosaurs, the famed flying reptiles of the Mesozoic era. Although pterosaurs went extinct millions of years before humans evolved, some humans may have discovered pterosaur fossils millennia ago. Before the development of paleontology as a formal science, these remains will have been interpreted through a mythological lens. Myths about thunderbirds told by the Native Americans of the modern Western United States may have been influenced by observations of Pteranodon fossils. These thunderbirds were said to have warred with water monsters, which legend can be construed to accord with the co-occurrence of Pteranodon and the ancient marine reptiles of the seaway over which it flew.

The formal study of pterosaurs began in the late 18th century when the naturalist Cosimo Alessandro Collini of Mannheim, Germany published a description of an unusual animal with long arms, each bearing an elongated finger. He recognized that this long finger could support a membrane like that of a bat wing, but, because the unnamed creature was found in deposits that preserve marine life, he concluded that these strange arms were used as flippers. The creature was restudied again in the very early 19th century by the French anatomist Georges Cuvier, who recognized both that the creature was a reptile and that its "flippers" were wings. He called the creature the Ptero-dactyle, a name since revised to Pterodactylus.

Although Cuvier's interpretation later became the consensus, it was just one of many early interpretations of the creature and its relatives, including that they were bats, strange birds, or the primordial handiwork of Satan himself. Similar animals like the long-tailed Rhamphorhynchus and Gnathosaurus were soon discovered around Europe and it became obvious that earth was once home to a diverse group of flying reptiles. The British anatomist Sir Richard Owen dubbed this vanished order the Pterosauria. Soon after, he described Britain's own first pterosaur, Dimorphodon. Later in the 19th century pterosaurs were discovered in North America as well, the first of which was a spectacular animal named Pteranodon by the paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh.

Various aspects of pterosaur biology invited controversy from the beginning. Samuel Thomas von Soemmering ignited a multi-century debate over how pterosaurs walked on the ground by suggesting they crawled on all fours like bats. August Quenstedt, by contrast, argued that they walked on their hind limbs. In the early 20th century, Hankin and Watson in the first major study of pterosaur flight biomechanics concluded that on the ground these reptiles were altogether helpless and could only scoot along on their stomachs like penguins. The debate gained steam in 1957 when William Stokes reported unusual tracks left by a four-footed animal he suspected was a pterosaur walking along the ground. In 1984, Kevin Padian, who had recently argued that pterosaurs walked on their hind legs, dismissed Stokes's tracks as those of a crocodilian. However, in the mid-1990s, Jean-Michel Mazin and others reported that fossil footprints in Crayssac, France were similar to those reported by Stokes from the US. Mazin's tracks were more obviously pterosaurian in origin and settled the debate in favor of pterosaurs walking on all fours.

Pterosaur paleontology continues to progress into the 21st century. In fact, according to David Hone, the early 21st century has seen more progress in pterosaur paleontology than in "the preceding two centuries" combined. He compared this transformative period in pterosaur paleontology to the dinosaur renaissance of the 1970s. He also observed that roughly one-third of known pterosaurs were discovered during this brief interval. One of the most notable of these was Darwinopterus, whose body resembled the more primitive long-tailed "rhamphorynchoids," while its skull resembled those of the more advanced short-tailed pterodactyloids. These traits establish the species as an important transitional form, documenting one of the most important phases of pterosaur evolution. Another important new species is Faxinalipterus minima, which may well be the world's oldest pterosaur. The first confirmed pterosaur eggs were also reported from China during the early 21st century.

Prescientific The Cheyenne people of Nebraska believed in mythical thunderbirds and water monsters that were in endless conflict with each other. The thunderbirds were said to resemble giant eagles and killed both people and animals with arrows made of lightning. People occasionally discovered stony arrowheads thought to come from the thunderbirds' arrows. According to folklorist Adrienne Mayor, these supposed arrowheads were likely fossil belemnites, which were compared to missiles by other indigenous American cultures, like the Zuni people.

The fossils of the Niobrara chalk may have been influential on these stories. The pterosaur Pteranodon and marine reptiles like mosasaurs are preserved in Niobrara Chalk deposits and associated remains may have been interpreted as evidence for antagonism between immense flying animals and serpentine aquatic reptiles. Fossils of the large toothed diving bird Hesperornis are also found in the Niobrara chalk, sometimes preserved inside specimens of large predatory marine reptiles. Observations of similar fossils in the past may have been seen as further evidence for thunderbird-water monster conflict.

The Sioux people of South Dakota believed that the first creatures in creation were the insects and reptiles, who were ruled by the Water Monster Unktehi. Reptiles were very diverse and came in all shapes and sizes, but they became violent and bloodthirsty until they were petrified by lightning sent by the Thunder Birds. The physical bodies of the Thunder Beings killed by the lightning, including Unktehi, also ended up being buried. The Sioux believe that earth has a history of four distinct ages. These events occurred during the Age of Rock. This portrayal of the Thunder Birds may also have been influenced by associations of fossils of Pteranodon with marine reptiles of the same age in the western United States.

18th century

1780s

1784 Cosimo Alessandro Collini, keeper of the natural history collections of Mannheim, reported the skeleton of an unusual animal to the scientific literature. It had strange arms that could have supported a membrane like that of a bat's wing, yet it was preserved in rocks characterized by fossil of marine life. Based on these associations, he tentatively concluded that the animal was aquatic.

19th century

1800s

1801 French anatomist Georges Cuvier restudied Collini's bizarre fossil, based on his published illustration. He reinterpreted its forelimbs as wings and deemed it a flying reptile.

1802 The strange fossil described by Collini was moved from Mannheim to Munich.

1807 German anatomist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach interpreted Collini's animal as a bird, specifically, as some kind of waterfowl.

1809 Cuvier named the flying reptile reported by Collini Ptéro-Dactyle.

1810s

1812 In contrast to Cuvier and Blumenbach, Samuel Thomas von Soemmering interpreted Collini's fossil as a mammal. Specifically, he interpreted it as an unusual bat, which morphologically linked mammals with birds. He named this strange creature Ornithocephalus. Soemmering may have interpreted this series of forms in an evolutionary sense, following the early evolutionary ideas of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. Soemmering's analysis of the specimen was blemished by anatomical errors, like the misidentifications of bones. Soemmering agreed with Cuvier that the creature was a flying insectivore, however. Soemmering argued that pterosaurs walked on all fours like bats when on the ground. His advocacy for this interpretation of pterosaur terrestrial gait has been regarded as the beginning of a multi-century debate on the subject.

1817 Soemmering reported the discovery of a second pterosaur specimen. This second specimen was smaller than the first, with a 25 cm wingspan, and possessed a shorter snout. These traits mislead Soemmering into greater confidence in his interpretation of pterosaurs as bats. This specimen reminded him of the parti-colored bat.

1819 Cuvier renames Ptéro-Dactyle into the current generic name Pterodactylus, but assigning P. longirostris (now considered a synonym of the type species P. antiquus) as the type species of the genus.

1820s

1824 Cuvier reiterated his previous conclusions that the Ptero-Dactyle was a reptile that flew with membranous wings. He also advanced novel speculations about its paleobiology, like that it used the claws on its wings to climb trees and "crawled" quadrupedally when not in flight rather than walking on its hind limbs.

1825 Paleontologist Georg Graf Munster discovered an unusual skull. He sent the fossil to Soemmering, who thought it belonged to an ancient sea bird. He also sent a cast of the skull to August Georg Goldfuss, who recognized it as a pterosaur. Goldfuss described the new species Pterodactylus muensteri based on the specimen.

1827 Gideon Mantell discovered some fossil bones in the Wealden beds (Wessex Formation) of Sussex, England that he believed were the remains of ancient birds. Mantell recognized that his "bird" bones were actually pterosaur fossils and reported his findings to the scientific literature. These were the first Cretaceous pterosaur fossils ever described.

1829 William Buckland described the new species Pterodactylus macronyx based on fossil remains discovered by Mary Anning in December the previous year from the Lias Group of the Dorset Coast of England. These were the first scientifically documented pterosaurs to be discovered outside of the Solnhofen lithographic limestone.

1830s

1830 Carl von Theodori described the new species Pterodactylus banthensis from Franconia. Georg Wagler argued that pterosaurs represented a distinct class of aquatic vertebrates that he called Gryphi. Like Collini, Wagler thought that pterosaurs swam underwater using their forelimbs as flippers.

1831 August Goldfuss depicted pterosaurs as flying reptiles that used their wing claws to climb cliffs. He hypothesized that on land, they would have had to travel on all fours. He also suggested that they may have been covered in hair.

1832 von Meyer described the new genus Rhamphocephalus.

1833 von Meyer described the new genus and species Gnathosaurus subulatus.

1834 Johann Jacob Kaup first referred to pterosaurs by that name.

1836 William Buckland depicted pterosaurs as cliff-climbing winged reptiles in a manner heavily influenced by Goldfuss.

==== 1839 ==== Graf Munster received a complete skeleton of "Pterodactylus" munsteri which revealed the presence of a long bony tail in this species.

1840s

1840 Thomas Hawkins published The Book of the Great Sea-Dragons, wherein he suggested that the great reptiles of the Mesozoic were created by the devil. He described pterosaurs as "an engrafted-by-Evil stock" and depicted them as bat-like scavengers that combed the ancient seashore.

1842 Sir Richard Owen formally named the order Pterosauria.

1843 Edward Newman interpreted pterosaurs as mammals in a similar fashion to Soemmering. However, Newman specifically considered pterosaurs to be carnivorous flying marsupials.

1847 von Meyer erected the genus Rhamphorhynchus.

1850s

1851 Two pterosaurs sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins were put on display in England's Crystal Palace. These were the first three-dimensional life-size restorations of pterosaurs.

1855 von Meyer described the new genus and species Ctenochasma roemeri.

1855