From the diminutive Pterodactylus brevirostris to the giant Quetzalcoatlus with its 12-metre wingspan, pterosaurs were not dinosaurs, but flying reptiles that commanded the skies during the time of the dinosaurs.

The journey to understanding pterosaurs began in 1784 when Italian naturalist Cosimo Alessandro Collini (1727-1806) described a fossil and remarked on the long fingers in the middle of its wing. Seventeen years later, French paleontologist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) named it 'ptero-dactyle', meaning 'winged finger'.

The genus Pterodactylus is part of the clade Pterosauria. There are many pterosaurs, including some which are quite different to Pterodactylus, such as the smaller Dimorphodon. Over time, naturalists re-classified many pterosaurs, overturning past notions that all extinct flying reptiles were pterodactyls. Today, only one species is classified as a pterodactyl - Pterodactylus antiquus - known from the fossil originally described by Collini.

In 1828, English paleontologist Mary Anning (1799-1847) discovered the first pterosaur in England. It was named  Pterodactylus macronyx by William Buckland (1784-1856), Professor of Geology at the University of Oxford, though it is now classified as Dimorphodon macronyx. On display are illustrations from Buckland's archive, used in his publications and lectures.