![]() ![]() Lawson in 1975 announced the find in an article in Science. of the Texas Memorial Museum unearthed three fragmentary skeletons of much smaller individuals. Lawson discovered a second site of the same age, about 40 km (25 mi) from the first, where between 19, he and Professor Wann Langston Jr. The specimen consisted of a partial wing (in pterosaurs composed of the forearms and elongated fourth finger) from an individual later estimated at over 10 m (33 ft) in wingspan. Lawson, who was then a geology graduate student from the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas. More.The first Quetzalcoatlus fossils were discovered in Texas from the Maastrichtian Javelina Formation at Big Bend National Park (dated to around 68 million years ago ) in 1971 by Douglas A. Either way, dinosaurs and pterosaurs are certainly closely related. There is a small minority of paleontologists who think that the pterosaurs’ stance could have been upright and that pterosaurs should therefore be included in the clade of dinosaurs (being derived theropods). Pterosaurs probably had a semi-upright stance. By definition, all dinosaurs were diapsid reptiles with an upright stance. Pterosaurs were reptiles, but not dinosaurs. Lawson (who was then a geology graduate student at the University of Texas, Austin) in 1971. The first Quetzalcoatlus fossil was found in Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, by Douglas A. Quetzalcoatlus flew long distances using large, light-weight wings. Quetzalcoatlus must have had good eyesight in order to spot meals from the air. It filtered its food through its long, pointed, toothless jaws. It probably hunted its prey by gliding toward the water and swooping up its meals. It probably ate arthropods (like early crayfish) and dying animals. It lived inland from the sea, near fresh-water ponds (so its diet was not primarily sea fishes and marine mollusks like other pterosaurs). Quetzalcoatlus was a carnivore, probably skimming the water to find prey. The largest Pteranodon individuals with 6 m (20 ft) wingspans were once thought to represent the size limit in biological fliers before the discovery of Quetzalcoatlus, so the matter is clearly still open. Such a wingspan, however, may violate fundamental structural limits imposed on biological fliers some scientists favor a wingspan closer to 12 m (40 ft) in light of these arguments. The largest remains, on display at the Science Museum of Minnesota, are somewhat scrappy, and may indicate an individual with a wingspan as large as 18 m (59 ft). There is still considerable debate as to the upper limit of Quetzalcoatlus wingspans. northropi) had an estimated wingspan of up to 12 m (39 ft). Skeletal remains of two species have been recovered from the Big Bend Region of Texas the larger of the two (Q. Bones of related animals are also known from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. ![]() During the Cretaceous, Texas’s climate was similar to modern tropical coastal wetlands and lagoons, extending along the Cretaceous Seaway that filled the center of North America. The first Quetzalcoatlus fossil was found by Douglas A. It was a member of the Azhdarchidae, a group of advanced toothless pterosaurs. Quetzalcoatlus (named for the Aztec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl) was a pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous of North America (Campanian–Maastrichtian stages, 84–65 ma), and one of the largest known flying animals of all time.
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