![]() Unlike some previous studies which suggested Quetzalcoatlus would be unable to fly, researchers found that the species would have been very capable by using a jumping start. Instead, they suggest the animals probably acted like a large heron, plucking fish, invertebrates, small amphibians and reptiles out of the water and gulping them down whole. The researchers first turned to the 'chopstick-like' beak, and found it was probably too delicate to have eaten meat or scavenged from carcasses. There is the potential for further species to be found at the site, but these will require further finds as the current unclassified bones lack the necessary detail to determine what they are.īy classifying the different bones by species, and investigating their unique features, the researchers were also able to find out how the different Quetzalcoatlus species would have behaved. As opposed to its larger relative, this species had a wingspan of around 4.5 metres long and was found in rocks dated to around 69 million years ago.įrom around the same period researchers also found a few bones of a third species of pterosaur called Wellnhopterus brevirostris, which had a wingspan of three metres. The majority of the finds are Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni, named in honour of Douglas Lawson, who first discovered the remains. These include changes in its skull structure and spine, suggesting that two other species of pterosaur were living side-by-side with the giant. In the end, scientists decided that they were probably a new species of Quetzalcoatlus, but did not carry out any further analysis to find an exact species.ĭecades later, scientists have finally analysed these smaller bones and found that they have a number of differences from the larger Q. northropi, or were from a different related species. When these fossils were discovered, it was uncertain whether the smaller bones were simply young Q. ![]() The species was described from the large bones of the left wing, but many smaller bones were also found in other areas of the park in different layers of rock. ![]() The largest ever pterosaur, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, was named in 1975 following the discovery of hundreds of bones in Big Bend National Park. The papers were published together as a 'memoir' in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The results are revolutionary for the study of pterosaurs - the first animals, after insects, ever to evolve powered flight.' 'This is the first real look at the entirety of the largest animal ever to fly, as far as we know. The co-editor of a series of recently published papers on the animals, Professor Kevin Padian, says, 'These ancient flying reptiles are legendary, although most of the public conception of the animal is artistic, not scientific. Together, these pterosaurs would have fed on a range of fish and small aquatic prey. The scientists also described a smaller relative, Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni, for the first time, which would have had a shorter wingspan, at around the length of a car. Researchers have found that its 11-metre-long wings meant it would have had to jump up to 2.5 metres into the air, followed by powerful flaps to pull it into the sky. With the wingspan of a small aeroplane, Quetzalcoatlus northropi was a pterosaur living in the wetlands of what is now Texas, USA over 67 million years ago. Some of the secrets of the largest animal to have ever taken to the air have been revealed, acting like a heron on the ground and a condor in the skies.
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