The Mesozoic spanned between 251 million and 66 million years, beginning in the Triassic and ending in the Cretaceous, often referred to as the Age of the Dinosaurs. Although dinosaurs ruled everything at that time on land supremacy, they did not rule the sky. Instead, the sky was the domain of a group of dinosaur relatives - pterosaurs, and pterosaurs were the overlords of the mesozoic sky.
Pterodactyls were the first vertebrates to fly and conquer the sky, long before birds appeared. It was more than 160 million years old at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago, before they disappeared along with non-avian dinosaurs.
During that time, they evolved super adaptability. The smallest of these aerial predators is only the size of a sparrow, with the largest wingspan comparable to that of an F-16 fighter. Giant pterosaurs of the Mesozoic Era foraged over Earth's oceans or land, and none of the animals escaped their eyes.
Many of today's birds evolved from dinosaurs, but Pterosaurs did not leave any living offspring. As a result, all the paleontologists know about pterosaurs comes from the fossil record. For decades, paleontologists have been haunted by these fossil mysteries. But now, new fossil discoveries, combined with new mathematical modeling methods, have helped us understand the mysteries about pterosaurs, and scientists have found pterosaurs to be even more extraordinary than we thought.
1. How did behemoths like pterosaurs fly through the air?
The problem has long plagued paleontologists, and Quetzalcoatlus was first found in Texas and is as tall as a giraffe with a wingspan of more than 30 feet. The jaws of these animals were twice as long as those of the Tyrannosaurus rex at the time, and their upper arms were about the size of the torso of an average adult. They are true behemoths, weighing more than 650 pounds. By comparison, Argentavis of Argentina, which lived 6 million years ago, is known as the largest bird in history and weighs less than 165 pounds.
In fact, the difference between the largest and smallest members of these groups is so great that multiple researchers believe that the largest pterosaurs could not fly at all, given that there are some parameters about the flight pattern. Others think they can fly, but only under very special air and surface conditions.
2. Three necessary conditions are needed for a behemoth like a pterodactyl to fly.
The first is a bone with a very high strength weight ratio, which means that the bones are large in volume but low in density. Both pterosaurs and birds have such skeletons, and many of their skeletons are hollow.
The second condition is a higher maximum lift coefficient. This figure describes the lift generated by the wing at a given speed and wing area. At higher lift coefficients, the animal will be heavier because its wings will support more weight at lower speeds. This relationship, in turn, means that the creature needs to take off at a lower speed, which has a huge impact on the muscle strength needed to launch.
The third and most important condition is launch capability. Even with very effective large wings, a fly still requires a certain ability to jump in order to fly. The wing does not produce a lot of lift at low speeds, and gravity firing means trying to accelerate in the wrong direction. Instead, powerful jumps provide the critical speed and altitude to start flying, and jumping ability enhancements result in better launch capabilities.
3. The limb elements of the pterosaur are extremely strange.
Although the huge mystery of the overall size of pterosaurs may eventually be largely solved, the relative size of the various parts of their bodies still plagues researchers. The proportions of pterodactyls are very strange. All pterosaurs have strangely proportioned limb elements. For example, their hands are probably the most specialized in the vertebrate world, with huge four fingers supporting their wings. However, this in itself is not particularly surprising, as this unusual hand is an intrinsic factor in the wings of pterosaurs and the ability of animals to fly.
What really confuses scientists and enthusiasts is not the wings of the pterosaur, but the head. Even early pterosaurs had distinctly large heads.
The skull of a Cretaceous pterosaur may have been twice or even three times the length of its body, usually the distance between the shoulders and hips. Some pterosaurs had skulls that were more than four times the length of their bodies. However, the brains of these animals are not too large. Mainly the face and jaw have expanded to intolerable proportions.
In any case, pterosaurs traveled mainly by flying. Pterodactyls have particularly long, narrow wings, like some modern seabirds, and may have flown continuously for months or even years, landing only to mate or lay eggs. Pterodactyls may have the most efficient wings ever built, so they are also suitable for continuous flight.
4. The demise of the Pterodactyl Dynasty
Pterodactyls are the only vertebrates with the ability to fly for 80 million years. About 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic period, the second group of vertebrates began to spread their wings and fly, that is, feathered dinosaurs. This group includes four-winged creatures such as small robbers, hyacinthosaurs, and birds. By the early Cretaceous, a wide variety of birds shared the sky with pterosaurs. Despite changes in the aerial ecosystem, pterosaurs still dominate the air, especially in open habitats. Birds are mainly confined to areas with plants, where their small size and flexibility are advantageous. Pterodactyls were thus able to maintain an advantage as rulers of open skies.
But when an asteroid crashed into Earth 66 million years ago, killing all non-Latvian dinosaurs, pterosaur rule also ended. Paleontological evidence to date suggests that not a single pterosaur species crossed the boundary at the end of the Cretaceous period.
They were all dead, and so were most of the birds. Only one lineage, the New Birds, or only the New Birds, survived. Why did pterosaurs suffer worse than birds of the late Cretaceous period? One reason may be that they are too large. Few land animals weighing more than 44 pounds survived that apocalyptic period.
Although the pterosaurs ended in extinction, its story was successful, and they were the ultimate aerial beasts, evolving a dizzying array of physical features that had not been seen in any other group before or since.
From them, we learned a lot about the limitations of animal form and function. These fossils help us understand the earth's historical and ecological complexities, and they have even inspired new technologies, including the design of new aircraft. Their fossil record is a window that opens up a world of yesteryear filled with real flying monsters!