One hundred and ten million years ago, Anhanguera, whose name means "old devil," flew above the waters of an inland sea in what we now call Brazil. This specimen was found in that country's Santana Formation, one of the world's richest sources of fossil remains.

The fact that Anhanguera lacks a tail tells us that in evolutionary terms, it is one of the more advanced pterosaurs, as the tail is a feature that emerged early in pterosaur development and disappeared as the group evolved. While Anhanguera has teeth, the most advanced members of this group lost their teeth completely.

Anhanguera had a large skull, a long neck, and a relatively small body. Its vertebrae are fused together, as are its ribs and sternum, or breast-bone. This whole structure forms a kind of box-like frame, which would have been a good place to attach large flight-muscles. Because pterosaurs do not have a big keel, which is where flight muscles are attached in modern birds, we once thought that Anhanguera and its relatives must have been rather marginal flyers at best, perhaps just gliding instead of actively flying. But further study of features like these fused bones indicated that pterosaurs had their own flight-muscle arrangement. Moreover, pterosaur fossils have been found in formations that are remnants of ancient seas, indicating that they ranged far from land, and therefore must have been strong flyers. The narrow crest that runs along Anhanguer's a long snout would have stabilized the animal's head in the water, so it could catch fish while flying.