First winged reptiles were clumsy flyers, research suggests
Analysis of early Pterosaurs fossils shows they are likely to have been ungainly in flight
Linda Geddes
Wed 28 Oct 2020 12.00 EDT
Pterosaurs, such as pterodactyl, are some of the largest animals ever to have taken to the skies, but the first reptile aviators were clumsy flyers, only capable of travelling short distances, a study suggests. The research may also shed new light on the evolution of flight more generally.
Pterosaurs evolved around 245m years ago, and dominated the skies for more than 150m years, before dying out at the end of the Cretaceous period along with many of their dinosaur cousins. With long membranous wings stretching from the ankles to an elongated fourth finger, pterosaurs are considered the earliest vertebrates to have evolved powered flight. But what did these first flights look like?
Prof Chris Venditti, a lecturer in evolutionary biology at the University of Reading, and his colleagues estimated the wing size and body mass of various pterosaurs from their fossilised remains, and combined this with information about the metabolic rates of birds to calculate how much energy pterosaurs would have needed to fly, and how far they could have glided before dropping to the ground.
This revealed that, though airborne, the earliest pterosaurs are likely to have been ungainly aviators. “They would have been flying, but relatively clumsily. They may have been climbing up trees and flying from one trunk to another, but not flying very long distances and not very agile in their flight,” said Venditti, whose research was published in Nature.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/28/first-winged-reptiles-were-clumsy-flyers-research-suggests
