Pteranodon = pure piscivore?

Our first post will be about the most iconic of the amazing pterosaurs, and one of the most iconic extinct animals of all: Pteranodon.

Credit goes to Matt Martyniuk from Wikipedia

With its distinctive head crest, Pteranodon is no doubt what most people think of when they hear the phrase "pterodactyl". It has appeared multiple times in pop culture as a person-eater that grabs humans in its eagle-like talons and carries them to its nest to feed to its peeping chicks in a birdlike nest. (This is the depiction they chose for the Jurassic Park franchise.)

Bonus points if it's depicted with teeth, despite its name translating to "toothless wing".

There are many things wrong with these depictions. (If you're a paleofan like me, you may already know all this.) For starters, it could not eat anything as large as a full-grown human. And it's common knowledge in our circles that pterosaurs' feet were not made for grasping, but for walking on solid surfaces. Also, it was discovered that pterosaurs were capable of flight shortly after hatching, so there goes the "feeding chicks in a birdlike nest" trope. (Though I'm thinking about making a separate post about possible pterosaur parental care in the future.)

Studies on Pteranodon show it to be more similar to a pelican or a gannet than an eagle. It even had partially webbed feet to help it swim. Many parts of its anatomy show a creature capable of plunge-diving beneath the waves to search for food such as fish and ammonites. (The one thing Jurassic World got right about its Pteranodons, besides the females having smaller crests.)

But back to the pelican comparison

Yes, indeed, this is starting to sound very much like a pelican. It's even sometimes depicted with a throat pouch like one. (Which we don't have direct evidence of, but it's entirely possible.)

Hey, do you wanna know sometime about pelicans? They don't just eat fish. Remember this infamous video?

This is not an isolated incident. Sometimes pelicans just get bored of fish, so they go for more...interesting prey. Even if it means flying inland to find it.

This makes me wonder if Pteranodon would once in a while get tired of fish and ammonites and decide to feed on something else, like small mammals and dinosaurs. Need I remind you that this guy got pretty big?

Credit goes to Matt Martyniuk from Wikipedia

Even though it's not big enough to eat a human, the male is plenty big enough to swallow a small baby dinosaur, especially if he had the aforementioned throat pouch.

Even if the JP depictions are inaccurate, the real Pteranodon still could've been a terrifying creature in its own right. I wonder if anyone's ever had this idea as well, and if anyone's ever drawn a Pteranodon eating a baby dromaeosaur or something similar.

Please note that this is not to suggest that tetrapods were a regular part of its diet. What I'm saying is that modern seabirds have a more varied diet than fish and cephalopods, and there's no reason to assume that wasn't the same with piscivorous pterosaurs.

So, any thoughts on this hypothesis?