Monday, October 15, 2018

Largest Pterosaur

Quetzalcoaltus, means "Feathered serpent" is the largest pterosaur that lived in North America during Late cretaceous period.When first discovered it was thought to have had a fifteen meter wingspan but further studies have reduced this estimate to eleven meters,‭ ‬although that‭’‬s still huge for a pterosaur.‭ ‬Another revision was the beak in that it has been learned that it terminated in a sharp point as opposed to the original blunt edge.  A more likely scenario accepted now is that Quetzalcoatlus had a lifestyle similar to that of a stork,‭ ‬perhaps stalking small prey items like lizards and mammals in vegetative growth on the ground,‭ ‬or sitting at the edges of streams and rivers snatching fish and amphibians as they swam by.‭ ‬Such feeding strategies would require very little energy expenditure,‭ ‬making it easier for Quetzalcoatlus to maintain the calorie intake to fuel its body.

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