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The Flying Reptile Thread- Anything pterosaur related

Adam Khor

It's name is Jianchagnathus robustus and was part of the scaphognathid family. The specimen is about 116 cms (wingspan) but probably could grow quite a bit larger since it was not yet fully grown. Check out the teeth!

Oh and in case you didn´t find out, there was recently another Jurassic pterosaur from China, Qinglongopterus, which was a small guy; only 33.4 cms (wingspan). It too was a rhamphorhynchid.
BTW, I resized the images but it seemingly didn´t work, sorry about that :S

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Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

According to mathematics a bumble bee can't fly, and nothing bigger than a swan can fly and ... and ....

Basically we know these creatures existed and we know they flew, and we know they were fairly successful. We should not be looking at problems in their existence, but looking at why they were as successful as they were. Who knows they may have been hunting T Rex rather than the other way around. I tend to think they were more likely to be like vultures or condors. Possibly hunters but mostly scavengers.

Maybe marabou storks would be a better comparison? Having a more similar beak and body structure, kiiiiinda....

WbHsLugUAn-flying_dinosaur-pterosaur-_Quetzalcoatlus.jpg

Ah, I almost forgot; here's a video of a Tapejara (mistakenly said to be Quetzalcoatlus in the video description, and also dubbed a "giant dinosaur") taking off and landing. Very different from the pole-vault take off we had been seeing lately.

http://www.livescience.com/24634-a-giant-dinosaur-s-awkward-takeoff-and-landing-video.html

Rubecula

I thought came to me as I watched that video (excellent bit of work by the way Adam) Who is to know how far these things actually flew for? A hundred yards or so to get out of danger or vast thousands of miles journeys?

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

I thought came to me as I watched that video (excellent bit of work by the way Adam) Who is to know how far these things actually flew for? A hundred yards or so to get out of danger or vast thousands of miles journeys?

Well, they (azhdarchids) were found in many parts of the world including islands such as Hateg (modern Romania) which would suggest they could fly long distances even over the ocean... I remember reading a study (was it posted here? I don´t remember) about how large pterosaurs were physically capable of travelling incredible distances in very little time.

Pteranodon and nyctosaurs were certainly long distance fliers as they are often found in fossil deposits that were once open sea- they were supossedly a lot like albatrosses and similar birds that spend most of their time on the wing (or on the sea surface) and return to land only to breed.
Nyctosaurs may have been the most albatross-like as they even lack wing fingers meaning they probably walked very little (they also have incredibly long wings for their size).

I wonder if we'll find pterosaurs with unmistakable adaptations to a flightless or nearly-flightless lifestyle one day... I remember reading that there was a specimen of pterosaur whose proportions had made some scientists believe it was flightless but it was later debunked.

Galvasean

A controversial study by Japanese researchers (IIRC) said that the giant azhdarchids could not fly. Pretty sure it was debunked very quickly.
Tetrapod Zoology guy wrote an interesting speculative 'what if?' piece about what they would be like if they survived into modern times:
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2008/10/21/kaloo-modern-flightless-azhdarchid/

Rubecula

If they had lasted I think we would have made use of them much like we have done with horses (and other beasts of burden)

We may not have even invented aeroplanes, or else invented them a lot sooner.?

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

If they had lasted I think we would have made use of them much like we have done with horses (and other beasts of burden)

We may not have even invented aeroplanes, or else invented them a lot sooner.?

Except that unlike horses, these guys were carnivorous... and potentially capable of eating a small human :eek:

I wonder what would we think of marabou storks (storks in general I guess) if they didn´t exist today and we knew them only by their fossils. I can totally see scientists suggesting that they were fligthless based on their weird proportions and large size:

Adam Khor

Small pterosaur from the late Cretaceous of Canada

Suggests birds did not outcompete smaller pterosaurs as has often been said. I always expected this to be found eventually;

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/small-bodied-pterosaur-canada-04148.html

Adam Khor

Allkauren, a new Jurassic pterosaur from Argentina

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/allkauren-koi-argentina-04145.html

Shows intermediate traits between long-tailed rhamphorhynchoids and short-tailed pterodactyls.

Adam Khor

Some pterosaurs did care for their young

https://phys.org/news/2017-11-hundreds-pterosaur-eggs-reveal-early.html

Adam Khor

A variety of new pterosaurs from Morocco

Including pteranodontids and nyctosaurids. Mostly just fragments.
http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/pterosaurs-maintained-high-diversity-until-the-end/
Interesting graphic tho. Avisaurus is pretty impressive for a Mesozoic bird. Looks about eagle-sized!
journal.pbio.2001663.g020

Adam Khor

"Dracula", the largest, most powerful pterosaur ever found

It was found in Transylvania, hence the nickname. Didn´t suck blood, but it was certainly big enough to eat a full sized human and had bones so robust it was thought to be a dinosaur at first. It belongs to the same family as Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx but is said to be a new species, and known from more complete remains (at last!).

https://www.thelocal.de/20180323/worlds-largest-pterodachtyl-dracula-museum-altmuehltal

main_900.jpg?1521827049

Adam Khor

https://www.livescience.com/62662-largest-pterosaur-jawbone-transylvania.html
33635839_995585740566665_1061821657666027520_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&_nc_eui2=AeGYBnjuWOs0jdwt_FmcNfxGgAW1MOCcMwqIu6mCcRwUwJpy7QkdlzHk5OHWPy2r3NdqqzyYN2uVq8ZhoxXNiFxeluYA10GFgZ-bo7DAa9g-6A&oh=2c1051117473e55d56c386cc19bfba40&oe=5B866F66

33635839_995585740566665_1061821657666027520_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&_nc_eui2=AeGYBnjuWOs0jdwt_FmcNfxGgAW1MOCcMwqIu6mCcRwUwJpy7QkdlzHk5OHWPy2r3NdqqzyYN2uVq8ZhoxXNiFxeluYA10GFgZ-bo7DAa9g-6A&oh=2c1051117473e55d56c386cc19bfba40&oe=5B866F66

Capt'n Midnight

200-million year old Pterosaur 'built for flying'

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-million-year-pterosaur-built.html

Caelestiventus hanseni—roughly, "heavenly wind"—is probably the most complete skeletal remains of a pterosaur ever found.

"Most pterosaurs bones look like road-kill," Britt told AFP, noting that there are only 30-odd specimens worldwide from the Triassic period which lasted some 51 million years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45171201

It's a trifecta: a Triassic pterosaur from a new place, preserved in an immaculate way, and found in rocks from an environment that we didn't think they lived in so early during their evolution. What this means is that pterosaurs were already geographically widespread and thriving in a variety of environments very early in their evolution.

Fathom

Delta winged (somewhat) Triassic pterosaur? Wish we could see it fly and dive for prey.

Adam Khor

Do check out the skull of this beauty!

Adam Khor

Quetzalcoatlus relative found in southern France

https://www.naturalsciences.be/en/news/item/17106/?fbclid=IwAR1PxCfxVdhMQmeMIbHxOMXQDmmUW6AqGDMzs7z3siR12j44CO8qwGWb2rQ

Mistralazhdarcho_maggii-novataxa_2018-Vullo_Garcia_Godefroit_Cincotta_et_Valentin--paleoArt-petitcarnetpaleo.blogspot.co.jpg

Mistralazhdarcho_maggii-novataxa_2018-Vullo_Garcia_Godefroit_Cincotta_et_Valentin--paleoArt-petitcarnetpaleo.blogspot.co.jpg

Adam Khor

This Pteranodon was eaten by giant fish

Tooth marks from both a shark (Squalicorax) and a barracuda-like fish (Saurodon) were found on this Pteranodon fossil.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/prehistoric-sharks-chowed-down-pterosaurs-180970476/

Adam Khor

Clues reveal how baby pterosaurs grew up

https://www.livescience.com/63871-how-pterosaurs-grew-up.html

flat,1000x1000,075,f.jpg

Adam Khor

Very impressive reconstruction of one of the largest flying animals known!

https://news.umich.edu/giant-pterosaur-flies-into-u-m-museum-of-natural-history/

giant-pterosaur-flies-into-u-m-museum-of-natural-history-98.jpg

giant-pterosaur-flies-into-u-m-museum-of-natural-history-34.jpg

giant-pterosaur-flies-into-u-m-museum-of-natural-history-78.jpg

giant-pterosaur-flies-into-u-m-museum-of-natural-history-19.jpg

Here's other Quetzalcoatlus models made by the same company:

3w8pg7t867g01.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&bb100e1b

Adam Khor

Pterosaurs had... feathers???

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0728-7?fbclid=IwAR2wtt7fuOg5-LtduK5eh0JlMlEIds0A4Vgp5zcaBpx916kVqIv67nS-9VA

batrachognathus_joschua-knueppe.png?w=2000&fm=jpg&auto=compress

batrachognathus_joschua-knueppe.png?w=2000&fm=jpg&auto=compress

Adam Khor

Technology reveals pterosaur's hidden soft parts, confirms early theories

When a German paleontologist described the Jurassic pterosaur Scaphognathus, he suggested it was covered on some sort of fur, and drew the first life reconstruction of a prehistoric animal in its environment, but his work was largely ignored. Now technology confirms what he saw back in 1831:

https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2018/2308-scaphognathus-in-rti-and-uv

4.+Scaphognathus+fossil+cast.jpg

Wibbs

The right Mark 1 Human Eyeball can still be an extremely accurate and valuable tool. The drawing made all those years ago looks remarkably accurate even today.

Adam Khor

New Coloborhynchus species from the Kem Kem fossil site

This is one of the known Spinosaurus fossil sites. Coloborhynchus is very similar to Tropeognathus, and it may be that they are really the same genus. This is the pterosaur made famous by Walking with Dinosaurs, and the largest toothed pterosaur known; some species such as T. messembrinus reached a wingspan of over 8 meters, being as large or larger than Pteranodon itself, and smaller only than azhdarchids such as Quetzalcoatlus.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667118303549

Adam Khor

Pterosaur trackway found in Poland. Apparently the trackmakers were large for Jurassic standards.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018218310162

Adam Khor

Baby pterosaurs could fly from birth

Unlike the vast majority of birds, it appears at least some pterosaurs were on their own from the moment they hatched.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2019/06/baby-pterodactyls-could-fly-from-birth/123960

nemicolopterus_chris-masnaghetti.png?w=2000&fm=jpg&auto=compress

nemicolopterus_chris-masnaghetti.png?w=2000&fm=jpg&auto=compress

Adam Khor

Seazzadactylus, a new Triassic pterosaur. Unusual teeth apparently.

https://peerj.com/articles/7363/

Fathom

Is the a threshold of weight to length of wingspan for flying reptiles? Wing composition a factor too (feathers? Or?). Shorter wingspans don't fly.

Adam Khor

Fathom wrote: »

Is the a threshold of weight to length of wingspan for flying reptiles? Wing composition a factor too (feathers? Or?). Shorter wingspans don't fly.

There has been much debate about the limits of pterosaur size/flight ability. There was a time, for example, when the iconic Pteranodon (with a wingspan of about 7 m) was believed to be the absolute limit for any flying creature.

Even then, there were plenty of scientists who refused to believe such an enormous animal was capable of powered flight; instead, they suggested that it would only glide by throwing itself from high cliffs, and that it would use the small claws on its wings to climb back up.

Pteranodon was discovered in 1870 (being not only the largest pterosaur found at the time, but also the first found outside of Europe, and the first one known to have been toothless). It remained the largest known flying creature until 1971, when an even bigger pterosaur was found in Texas:

This one was named Quetzalcoatlus and assumed to have similar proportions to Pteranodon, which gave it a wingspan of 12-15 m. So Pteranodon was apparently not the upper limit for flying animals after all.

Quetzalcoatlus also posed an interesting puzzle. Pteranodon was thought to glide over sea currents like an albatross, and it was believed that these very particular conditions were what had allowed it to become so large. But Quetzalcoatlus came from inland deposits away from the sea, so this was an animal that flew over vast plains and forests, and presumably the terrain here was flat so, there were no cliffs to jump from.

It also seemed rather unlikely that a pterosaur this size would survive among the likes of Tyrannosaurus rex without being able to take off from the ground. Scientists then suggested that Quetzalcoatlus was probably a scavenger that fed on the scraps of giant theropod's kills- like a giant vulture, despite the fact that it had a long, straight, edentulous jaw that didn´t seem particularly well suited for dealing with large carcasses.

As time went on, more complete remains of Quetzalcoatlus-like pterosaurs were found around the world, allowing for a better understanding of its anatomy. It turns out, Quetzalcoatlus was part of a family- known as the azhdarchids ("dragons"), which had proportionally short wings, incredibly elongated necks and huge heads, and were seemingly better suited for walking and perhaps even running on the ground than other pterosaurs. Pteranodon, for example, with its tiny hind legs and extremely long wings, would've been capable but not particularly agile on the ground. Quetzalcoatlus and its azhdarchid kin however seemed well prepared for a mostly terrestrial lifestyle.

71uXaqHo9eL._SY450_.jpg

This has led to our current concept of azhdarchids as predators of small to medium-sized prey, caught not on the wing but by walking, like modern day marabou storks or ground hornbills. The relatively short wings and very long neck and beak do resemble those of said birds.

Naturally some paleontologists have expressed doubts that such weirdly proportioned giants were flyers at all, but they are a minority. The fact that the pterosaurs coexisted with the likes of tyrannosaurs and dromeosaurs, and that azhdarchids were found all across the globe (including places that were islands during the Cretaceous), does suggest that they must have been able to fly, even if they spend the majority of their time on the ground.

Life_restoration_of_a_group_of_giant_azhdarchids%2C_Quetzalcoatlus_northropi%2C_foraging_on_a_Cretaceous_fern_prairie.png

Life_restoration_of_a_group_of_giant_azhdarchids%2C_Quetzalcoatlus_northropi%2C_foraging_on_a_Cretaceous_fern_prairie.png

Of course, the relatively short wing model means that even Quetzalcoatlus has been downsized from 12-15 m to about 9-11 m. Even then, it and other giant azhdarchids currently have no rivals among flying creatures.

I personally don´t think there's anything weird about azhdarchids being able to fly even with those strange proportions. Many birds today have such huge heads and necks that you wouldn´t think, by looking at their skeletons, that they would be able to fly, yet we see them do it all the time.

I think maybe weight would be a more important factor when limiting the flying capabilities of giant pterosaurs. Despite its great size, Quetzalcoatlus had relatively light bones. Its weight is estimated at about 200-250 kg, which is a very large animal in absolute terms, but paperweight when you consider it would be about the size of a giraffe when standing on all fours. An adult giraffe can weigh over 1 ton.

aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzAxNy84MDkvb3JpZ2luYWwvUXVldHotZ2lyYWZmZS0xMTA3MDYuSlBH

aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzAxNy84MDkvb3JpZ2luYWwvUXVldHotZ2lyYWZmZS0xMTA3MDYuSlBH

On the other hand, some fragmentary remains from Romania seemingly come from much more robust azhdarchids. Since Romania was an island back then- known as Hateg island- populated by dwarved versions of mainland dinosaurs, and these giant azhdarchids are believed to have been the apex predators in such island, there is a possibility that they were flightless or nearly fightless, since they would face presumably no competition or threat from giant theropods, and there would be no need to fly anymore. But we need more complete skeletons to be sure.

Until now, no pterosaur has been confirmed as flightless.

As for wing composition, pterosaurs did not have feathers (or at least, flight feathers); their wings were composed by a single elongated digit (equivalent to our pinky), and a membrane of skin and muscle and other components (including unique fibres for strengthening and support, and a copious network of blood vessels). In some pterosaurs, even the respiratory system seemingly extended its air sacs into the wing membranes. Overall, the wing structure of all pterosaurs known thus far seems pretty consistent.

So they weren´t like bird wings at all, and they were a lot more complex structurally than the simple kite-like structure imagined by early paleontologists.

Fathom

Giant pterosaurs. Wow! Picture a 1000 words.

Adam Khor

Iberodactylus, a new crested pterosaur from the early Cretaceous

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41280-4

Iberodactylus_andreui-novataxa_2019-Holgado_P%25C3%25AAgas_Canudo_et-al--%2540pterosaurios-paleoArt_%2540metazoastudio.jpg

Iberodactylus_andreui-novataxa_2019-Holgado_P%25C3%25AAgas_Canudo_et-al--%2540pterosaurios-paleoArt_%2540metazoastudio.jpg