Avgodectes

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Avgodectes pseudembryon is a controversial pterosaur species whose name translates to "false-embryo egg-biter". Named by Peters in 2004 and based on a recently discovered pterosaur embryo within an egg, it may be synonymous with Haopterus. Peters gave the species its name in accordance with his theory that, rather than an embryonic pterosaur inside an egg as described by the authors, the specimen actually represents a tiny adult pterosaur that had crawled inside a dinosaur egg in order to consume its contents (Peters holds that pterosaurs did not lay eggs, but rather gave birth to live young, and the discovery of a pterosaur embryo inside an egg would invalidate his theory). Peters also holds that juvenile pterosaur skeletons were cartilaginous or not ossified (hardened bones), and has claimed to have discovered dozens of baby pterosaur impressions in previously known rock slabs containing pterosaur fossils using Adobe Photoshop filters. The Avgodectes embryo shows that pterosaur bones were ossified and sturdy even before hatching, a discovery that Peters dismissed by asserting that the embryo is in fact a tiny adult. Other pterosaur researchers have dismissed Peters' views as "fantasy".^[1]

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