Pterosaurs in a sentence

Daily activity patterns Comparisons between the scleral rings of pterosaurs and modern birds and reptiles have been used to infer daily activity patterns of pterosaurs.

Just two other vertebrate groups have achieved powered flight - the flying reptiles called pterosaurs and birds, both appearing way before bats.

According to a university spokeswoman quoted by The Guardian, the new finds showed that African pterosaurs were “quite similar” to those found on other continents.

And the tables may have been turned on some pterosaurs.

But when an asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago, dinosaurs and pterosaurs both perished.

Pterosaurs evolved into dozens of species.

This one lacked teeth and was remarkably similar to a bizarre group of pterosaurs called ‘tapejarids’.

Alternatively, some pterosaurs may have been specialised for an ocean-going lifestyle.

Archaeopteryx skeletons are considerably less numerous in the deposits of Solnhofen than those of pterosaurs, of which seven genera have been found.

As such, this excludes pterosaurs.

BBC Documentary: Walking with dinosaurs (episode 4 ) – Giant Of The Skies at 22', Tim Haines, 1999 By the end of the Cretaceous, only large species of pterosaurs are known.

Consequently, when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event severely affected the marine life on which these pterosaurs fed, they became extinct.

Earlier suggestions were that pterosaurs were largely cold-blooded gliding animals, deriving warmth from the environment like modern lizards, rather than burning calories.

Furthermore, Darren Naish concluded that atmospheric differences between the present and the Mesozoic were not needed for the giant size of pterosaurs. citation Pterosaur flight adaptations.

Growth rates of pterosaurs once they hatched varied across different groups.

Historically, this has led to various growth stages (including growth stages of related pterosaurs) being mistaken for new species of Pterodactylus.

Hone and Benton found pterosaurs to be closely related to dinosaurs even without hind limb characters.

However, paleontologist Dave Hone has noted that, even after the 40 intervening years, the pterosaurs in this film had not been significantly updated to reflect modern research.

Indeed, analysis of pterosaur limb proportions shows that there was considerable variation, possibly reflecting a variety of wing-plans. citation Many, if not all, pterosaurs also had webbed feet.

In this case, it was unclear how the enormously large giant pterosaurs, with an inefficient cold-blooded metabolism, could manage a bird-like takeoff strategy, using only the hind limbs to generate thrust for getting airborne.