iceage2012
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Quetzalcoatlus northropi is an azhdarchid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous of North America and one of the largest known flying animals of all time.
Oct 11, 2023 9:09 PM
iceage2012
52806
505
8
Quetzalcoatlus northropi is an azhdarchid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous of North America and one of the largest known flying animals of all time.
nemocares
I find it kinda funny that the pterosaurs are one step off of the dinosaur family tree on the exact opposite side of it from birds.
theskepticinme
He beak to big fo he got damn head!
nevergoingtogiveyouupnevergoingtoletyoudown
I feel like those wing flesh is grossly undersized for the size of the rest of the animal.
VodKanockerz
This statue is in the Field Museum in Chicago. You can stand underneath it. Super cool to see in person.
GorillaStark
Maybe it's the perspective but those wings don't look big enough
HollerinAtTheVoid
"I could totally beat one in a fight to the death without any weapons" -Connor, Bryce and Chad
BeeWoman
He head too big fo he goddamn he
salunatics
fknbastard
Needs a bath, a brushing, and a cuddle ❤️
HoneNathan
...One of?
TheTaoTakesPictures
How did Stegosaurus have sex?
NewHopeAnnex
GuitarsAndCodeAndRage
More like Quetzalcoatlus North-NOPE, amirite?
NuclearGradeIrony
One of? What's bigger? Was there an alive zeppelin?
duktayp
The early Quetzalcoatlus gets the worm, or monkey
EntertainMeNL
Or king kong
petresun
Wonder if they fly to low, do they just lawn dart it?
SpartaWolf117
imagine a giraffe-sized predator with wings
Hashbrown123
And a giant fucking spear.
MutteringMisanthrope
If not fren, then why fren shaped?!?........
redtails2649
Why wings so small?
SauronsLeftNut
This big boy, a anky and ill mine ALL the metal.
theDogter
Dragon
ramblercomet5772
I can hear it, thanks to cartoons.
goboltz
"BirB" !
NotasbigasmediumsizedJock
Quetzalovercoatl
afatrollofmyown
Press X to mount Sunwing
duktayp
Tastes like chicken
eyesoftheearth
Chicken tastes like everything
shameofslate
So, in the very distant past, there must’ve been someone who was the first guy to eat a chicken. But what could he tell the others it tasted like?
scoutMoonDiver
napsmear
HandoB4Javert
Food for scale.
Grimmrog
it' probably would have swallowed that dude whole, like some pelican, and then you slowly suffocate in it's stomach.
pointsForNothing
Look like it's fake. The beak doesn't bent normally.
davesaint01930
FATALITY. Wait...ANIMALITY
eXoRainbow
Nice work.
Fishkeeper
Accurate.
TeamRocketBlastOffAtTheSpeedOfLightSurrenderNowOrPrepareToFight
Nah, miss me with that. 1v1 the Quetzal may have a chance, especially with a surprise swoop and grab. However, Homo Sapiens are a pack
TeamRocketBlastOffAtTheSpeedOfLightSurrenderNowOrPrepareToFight
animal. There is absolutely no chance a Quetzal will come out on top of a party of Humans.
PolarHailStorm
We'd have spears. The fuckers would swoop to their own impalement.
Vatas
I remember reading weird scifi book where a planet has primitive human population and giant eagles. Humans used to have dedicated lookout for eagles, but eagles learned humans aren't worth the effort. Protagonist from high tech civilization gets attacked by an eagle he wounded earlier in the story and manages to kill it with a plasma knife, using the last drop of juice its battery had. I assume it may have been setup for next book, since in primitives' eyes, he just casted "Burning Hands."
HawkmanXLII
My favourite dinosaur.
Ubik360
Ummm actually …. *pushes up nerd glasses*
HawkmanXLII
What? Is it not a dinosaur?
NoImDirtyDan
Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs
JoeMangoJello
Apparently it's a pterosaur, which is different from dinosaurs because of the hip bones having holes or something.
Fishkeeper
No, it's different from dinosaurs because it didn't evolve from the thing that's the ancestor of all dinosaurs and nothing but dinosaurs. We don't group things up by shape any more, we group them by what they're descended from. Which is why whales are grouped up with cows despite being a vastly different shape.
Fishkeeper
Basically, it's a different branch off the tree of life, that happened to be around for and very distantly related to the dinosaurs.
FrogBotherer
It's an interesting bit of language where technical usage and common usage are at odds. In biologic terms "dinosaurs" are a distinct group of archosaurs that includes all modern birds, dinosaurs and pterosaurs exist on different branches of the evolutionary tree. Colloquially "dinosaurs" are ancient, extinct reptile-like critters. Mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, dimetrodons, etc. are also not dinosaurs but often called that, incorrectly.
doppelfisch
It did infact crush my childhood heart a little when I learned that elasmosaurus wasn't a dinosaur. But then it was neat to learn of the different classifications.
Leetri
Basically cousins to the dinosaurs. Calling a pterosaur a dinosaur is like calling a racoon a seal.
chut7
Actually, it's more like calling a spider a bug. Colloquially, many people know them as dinosaurs, just like many people refer to spiders as bugs, not in a scientific sense.
Fishkeeper
It's less "colloquially" and more "incorrectly".
tinyfootprints
Probably couldn't fly today. The air pressure was a little higher and the oxygen content was a lot higher back in its day.
ComradeJenkens
I've not read anything about atmospheric pressure, but the higher oxygen levels are a myth. Oxygen was similar to, slightly higher, or slightly lower over the period of time the dinosaurs were around.
ComradeJenkens
(Continued as evidently can't start a new line on imgur). The confusion about the high oxygen levels comes from the carboniferous period, which had far higher oxygen.
Fishkeeper
I don't think that's quite right. At least, not to a degree that would radically alter the physics of flight.
DeltaVelocity
Actually some articles online about this exact animal. The air pressure has been suggested to be as much as 5 times higher 100 million years ago and this would be very significant from an aerodynamic point of view if it was proven true. Oxygen content wise, it is touched on in reasoning 1 in the article and could help explain a few bits and pieces. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26553081_Atmospheric_pressure_at_the_time_of_dinosaurs
ironymus
I don't think we could get any evidence of higher atmospheric pressure only from rock formations. That's why no one has thought of it before. The only evidence we have are the dinosaurs that existed back then and their occurrence couldn't be explained otherwise
Fishkeeper
You'd be surprised what they can get out of rocks.
Whatwhatsomethingbutt
I don't know about air pressure, but my guess is the higher oxygen content would be needed to account for the sheer exertion of keeping something that big moving.
ComradeJenkens
The higher oxygen level is a myth. People get mixed up with the carboniferous period, which did have far higher oxygen than today. Large pterosaurs had air sacks running through their body and wings which acted as extensions of their lungs. Their breathing was insanely efficient. Likewise, their primary walking limbs also being their flight limbs removes the size restraints placed on birds.
HoneNathan
The debate is apparently ongoing: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131118081043.htm
Whatwhatsomethingbutt
Oh... interesting. Thanks!
HoneNathan
NP