Geosternbergia is an extinct genus of pteranodontid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America. Geosternbergia was one of the largest pterosaur genera, and had a wingspan of up to . Discovery and history The first fossils of Geosternbergia were collected by American paleontologist George F. Sternberg in 1952 from the lower portion of the Niobrara Formation. The fossils of the animal looked similar to those of the species Pteranodon longiceps, but the crests were set upright and in a slightly different position. In 1958, Sternberg and paleontologist Myrl V. Walker published a study about this peculiar find. In 1966, American paleontologist John Christian Harksen assigned the specimens found as a new species of Pteranodon called P. sternbergi due to its distinct upright crest that set it apart from P. longiceps. Halsey W. Miller however, concluded a revision of the different species of Pteranodon in 1971, and created three different subgenera. One of which was Sternbergia, which consisted of the Pteranodon specimens with upright crests. P. sternbergi was assigned to this subgenus along with another species called P. walkeri, but Miller then found out that the name Sternbergia had been preoccupied, so he changed it into Geosternbergia instead. Paleontologists like S. Christopher Bennett consider Geosternbergia to be older than P. longiceps, and therefore the direct ancestor of that species. The most complete example of the species, currently in the collections of the University of Alberta Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology as specimen number UALVP 24238, is a partially-articulated sub-adult fossil with a wingspan of about . The skeleton is missing only parts of the skull and the ends of the wings and feet, was discovered in 1974 near Utica, Kansas. The fossil was found by Richard C. Fox and Allen Lindoe in rocks belonging to the lower part of the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation. These rocks date to the late Coniacian or early Santonian stage, about 86 million years ago. In 2010, a paper by Alexander W.A. Kellner argued that this specimen was different enough from G. sternbegi that it should be re-classified as its own genus and species, which he named Dawndraco kanzai. This generic name combined the Dawn deity of the Iroquois with a Latin draco, "dragon". The specific name refers to the Kanza tribe of Kansas. Kellner thought that several features of the skeleton supported his hypothesis that D. kanzai was