The wingspan of a pterodactyl. Pterodactyl dimensions, what did the pterodactyl eat, is the pterodactyl a dinosaur or not

Pterodactyls (lat. Pterodactyloidea) are extinct winged lizards, or pterosaurs (Pterosauria). To date, more than 20 species of these creatures have been discovered that lived at the end of the Jurassic period.

The smallest of them were the size of a sparrow, and the largest reached a wingspan of up to 12 m. The fossilized remains of such giants were found in Texas (USA) and were called quetzalcoatl. At the time of their existence, the expanses of what is now Texas were covered with swamps and small rivers.

The Quetzalcoatl proudly hovered above them and fed on the fish they caught. Pterodactyls had a well-developed respiratory system and sharp eyesight.

Their brains were fairly well developed compared to most dinosaurs. Many researchers believe that they were warm-blooded animals.

Types of lizards

Winged lizards lived on our planet in mesozoic era. Pterodactyls appeared to replace the primitive group of pterosaurs - Rhamphorhynchus, which existed in the Triassic period, and completely replaced them by the end of the Jurassic period.

To the number characteristic features pterodactyls include hollow bones and a tracery skull. Their spine was shortened, the vertebrae of the pelvic and thoracic girdle were fused into one bone. They did not have clavicles, but the shoulder blades were greatly elongated.

The jaws of most pterodactyls were armed with sharp teeth. Some of them were completely toothless. They ate fish, insects, fruits of plants and even plankton.

Passionate lover of plankton was Pterodaustro (Pterodaustro guinazul).

It had a wingspan of about 120 cm, flew over the water surface and scooped up a portion of water with a beak-spoon, slightly reminiscent of the beak of a modern pelican. He filtered it through a frequent sieve of small teeth, thus getting to the nutritious plankton.

The flight membranes were so thin that the slightest damage to them made him unable to fly, dooming him to starvation.

The best studied is Pterodactylus grandis. He lived on the territory of modern Europe and Africa. Representatives of this species inhabited rocky sea coasts, which allowed them to easily soar into the air from a cliff. They did not form large flocks, they lived in the neighborhood, but each predator tried to stay apart from his relatives.

The pterodactyl moved extremely clumsily on the ground, relying on all four limbs, but in the air it covered great distances, gliding like the current albatrosses. In flight, he used warm air currents, of which there were plenty during his existence.

The primitive flyer knew how to flap his wings, but very hard and slowly, so his start always began from a high cliff or cliff. He flew low over the water, looking for prey.

Noticing the fish, the lizard rushed to the attack and grabbed it with sharp jaws. With the catch he caught, he returned to the shore, where he indulged in a meal.

Having refreshed himself, the fisherman returned back to the hunting grounds, as he suffered from pronounced voracity. For the night, he always settled on steep slopes where predators could not reach.

Reproduction and external data

Pterodactyls were egg-laying creatures. Many researchers have come to the conclusion that they formed married couples, incubated the clutch together and took care of the offspring. Newborn cubs were not able, at least at first, to do without parental help.

The wingspan of Pterodactylus grandis was about 2.5 m and the weight was about 3 kg. The short, dense body was covered with a kind of "fur" resembling fur. bats.

A rather large skull was composed of light porous bones. Strongly elongated jaws were covered with a horny beak. The jaws contained numerous sharp teeth.

The forelimbs turned into wings and were much longer than the hind limbs.

Small hind limbs were five-fingered. Four fingers were armed with claws, and the shortest finger did not have a claw. The tail was very small and did not play a significant role in flight.

Three fingers of the forelimbs were small and ended in claws, and a very long fourth finger served as a frame for the membrane forming the wing. The bearing plane of the wings was formed by a leathery membrane. It was stretched between the sides of the body and the forelimbs.

The pterodactyl is the first animal known to scientists to be classified as a genus of flying lizards that appeared on the scene of life at the very end of the Jurassic period. These flying lizards very much resembled a bird with huge wings and a sharp beak.

Most pterodactyls were quite large in size, and their bodies were incredibly light, due to the fact that the bones of the skeleton of these flying dinosaurs had air cavities and were very light. Such a light skeleton made it possible for these lizards to fly without difficulty using their membranous wings. The pterodactyl wings themselves consisted of skin folds that were attached to the bones at the wrists and to every fourth finger. The name of this dinosaur in translation means "Fingerwing".

Pterodactyl dimensions

The sizes of pterodactyls could vary greatly, both in height and in length, since paleontologists have found remains of pterodactyls the size of a crow, as well as skeletons the size of a modern aircraft up to 12 meters. But the average size of these dinosaurs ranged from 2 - 2.5 meters in length to 1.5 meters in height, and their weight averaged up to 75 kg.

What did the pterodactyl eat?

Presumably, these lizards were able to cling to the rocks, then push off from them and plan in the air above the surface of the reservoir. Since the paws of pterodactyls had fingers, this anatomy allowed them to snatch fish from the water on the fly. Of course, only large individuals could hunt fish, smaller pterodactyls had to be content mainly with insects.

As mentioned above, pterodactyls clung to the rocks with their paws, then took off by pushing off. But it will be interesting to know that they could not take off from the ground, in order to take off this animal had to climb a tree or a rock, and then soar spreading its wings. These lizards climbed trees, mountains and rocks perfectly, but they practically could not move on land, movement on the surface of the earth was given to them with great difficulty. Such circumstances made them very easy prey for other dinosaurs.
by the most prominent representatives pterodactyls are considered Quetzalcoatl and Pteranodon.

Tailless pterosaurs of the pterodactyl suborder ranged in size from sparrows to giants with a wingspan of more than 12 meters. And if no one really thought about the ability of the "kids" to actively fly (just drawing parallels with modern bats), then the giants puzzled - modern birds, having a more advanced mechanism for flying, with such sizes simply would not be able to rise into the air, lizards on the other hand, having a relatively weak musculature of the shoulder girdle and a heavy wing-membrane, apparently, they spent most of their lives in the air - despite the fact that the force of gravity on Earth was then slightly higher than today. For a long time it was believed that large pterosaurs were only capable of passive soaring in updrafts, and could only start by throwing themselves headfirst off a cliff. A medium-sized Pteranodon that accidentally appeared on a flat surface was allegedly doomed due to the impossibility of rising into the air again.

Modern calculations show that even the largest pterosaurs could fly quite actively, despite the fact that they resembled a modern giraffe in size. These two-kilogram creatures could take a run at a speed of 15 meters per second - to disperse such a mass, pterosaurs used all four limbs. They jumped well, pushing off mainly with their front limbs at the time of acceleration and takeoff, it took them less than one second to take off from the surface of the earth (without any need to rush into the abyss) to go flying.

But they did not fly at all like birds, although, by analogy, they are depicted everywhere in a very similar way - with their head stretched forward, like a goose. At most, they could hover in a similar way. But in order to flap wings in the bird way, you need developed pectoral muscles attached to a large keel-sternum, and these formations in pterosaurs were much smaller than in birds. For active flight, pterosaurs used a different method.

Among insects, there are those that flap their wings an order of magnitude more often than their nerve cells can physically send a signal to the muscles. This is explained by the resonance effect - the rigid back of some beetles acts as a resonator - if these elytra are removed, it will not be able to take off. To feel this effect, try to take a long elastic rail by the middle and shake it. If you lower and raise your hand to the beat, then with a very small expenditure of energy, you can achieve an amplitude of strokes with a frequency of several hertz - the ends of the rail become translucent. If you lose the rhythm, then the resistance of the bar to the movement of the hand immediately increases significantly.

A large wing is hard to accelerate, and then even harder to slow down to move in reverse side, they cannot be waved from a place to the full amplitude, but gradually accelerating up and down, the flapping of even very large wings can be brought to a very high frequency. It remains to introduce a rather weak control signal, slightly "braking" or "accelerating" the wings in their resonance. This element was the pectoral and dorsal muscles of pterosaurs. It was enough for them to apply an effort (jerk) with a stroke of several centimeters once every few seconds, and the wings continued to flap with a frequency of several hertz and an amplitude of two meters. The whole trick is in the special tendons that connected the bones of the upper limbs during the flight into a single rigid resonator.

To fly forward, you only need to make the leading edge of the wing more rigid, so that during the stroke the wing makes raking movements, and lift and thrust will begin to be created. What we have in the case of the pterodactyl wing is that the leading edge is formed by the bones of the limb, and the plane is formed by a strong elastic membrane.

However, if a creature with the proportions of a bird tried to use a similar method of flight, then the very first flap of the wings would lead to the fact that the body would shift in the opposite direction. With an increase in the strength of the swings, the body will deviate from its original position so much that it will lose stability and be thrown to the side. In this case, the conditions for the reverse swing will be violated, and it simply will not be possible to produce it. If, in order to compensate for this undesirable phenomenon, the body weight is increased, then it turns out that the lifting force created by the wings is not enough to lift off the ground.

Pterosaurs solved this problem original way. When you see the skeleton of a pterodactyl, the first thing that catches your eye is a huge head with a thick neck on a frail body - the dimensions of the torso, head and neck are approximately the same. With this arrangement, the center of gravity was in the neck area, and the entire system was set in motion by bending the neck in a vertical plane - by energetic swings of the head up and down (or, in the case of a vertical body position, back and forth). At the same time, the head played the role of a counterweight that stored energy, and at the other end of the "swing" there were wings - the head swayed like a pendulum, the wings moved back and forth more and more. The mass of the head balanced the mass of air thrown by the wings, and the larger it was, the more air could be thrown off for each swing. Objectively, this theory is supported by the fact that the brain of pterodactyls was suspended in an air bag that absorbs shaking (which is not observed in birds) - with this use of the head, the brain must have been subjected to significant overloads.

The moment of inertia of the head (or, more simply, its mass) was adjusted by a combination of two methods - by pumping blood from the body into the head (there are numerous traces of blood vessels on the imprints of the crests of giant pterosaurs - cavernous formations for blood ballast were attached there) and by tilting the head - by changing the length lever arm, which explains its long, elongated shape and the presence of the same crest.

The takeoff of a pterodactyl could also be almost vertical, from a place - only the wings accelerated, while the pterosaur remained in place. Gaining altitude, he lay down on the wing - moved to a horizontal position and continued to fly in gliding mode. At the same time, he could, if necessary, add speed by sharp jerks with his head with simultaneous sharp flapping of the wings down and their slow rise. However, in the rest of the time, in horizontal flight, a heavy head was no longer needed, but, on the contrary, was a hindrance. This problem was solved, again, in two ways. Firstly, the blood from the head was pumped out to the body, which shifted the center of gravity. Secondly, the head could take a position below the body, similar to the position of the pilot of a classic hang glider. This easily achieved optimal flight stability and control efficiency - just a slight change in the position of the head changed the transverse slope of the flight plane relative to the horizon, and, accordingly, taxiing was carried out. True, the picture of the surrounding world turned out to be inverted, and the eyes had to be directed back and up (i.e., forward and down in the direction of movement) relative to the normal position of the head. In this case, the eyes of pterosaurs were similar to the eyes of chameleons, which can survey almost the entire sphere without turning their heads. In addition, this position of the head solved the problem of transporting various objects in the beak - prey or building materials. After all, unlike birds, a flying lizard could not carry objects with its feet without violating its flight characteristics.

To enhance braking during landing, a bone was used that deviated forward and stretched the front of the flight membrane. In addition, pterosaurs could change the shape of the wings during the flight, deflecting the finger to which the end of the membrane was attached, and adjust the curvature of the wing surface due to a set of long muscle fibers and tendons that made up the frame of the supporting membrane. The part of the pterosaur brain that controls movement is several times larger than that of a bird. This suggests that with simpler mechanics, the flight of lizards required a more complex control system.

Pterodactyls were carnivorous pterosaurs and fed mainly on fish and small animals. Like all pterosaurs, pterodactyls had wings formed by a musculocutaneous membrane that extended from an elongated fourth wing digit to the hind limbs. The membrane was supported internally by collagen fibers and externally by keratin ridges.

Pterodactylus antiquus- the first pterosaur species to be named and identified as a flying reptile.

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Description

The pterodactyl is known from over 30 fossil specimens, and although most are juveniles, many have preserved complete skeletons. Pterodactylus antiquus was a small pterosaur with an adult wingspan estimated at 1 m (the only adult specimen is presented with a detached skull). It is assumed that the sizes of other species were smaller. Perhaps some of them are immature specimens of pterodactyl, as well as other pterosaurs living at the same time, such as ctenochasma, Germanodactylus, Aerodactylus, Aurorazhdarcho and Gnathosaurus .

The skulls of adult pterodactyls were long and thin and bore about 90 narrow conical teeth. The teeth were long at the tips of both jaws and became smaller the deeper they were in the mouth. This distinguished pterodactyls from related species, whose teeth were missing at the tip of the upper jaw and were uniform in size. Pterodactyl teeth also extended much further into the mouth than in closely related species, as some teeth are present even in the anterior part of the preorbital-nasal fenestra, the largest opening in the skull. Unlike related species, the pterodactyl's skull and jaws were straight rather than upturned.

Pterodactyl, like related species, had a crest on the skull, which consisted mainly of soft tissue. In adults, the ridge passed between the trailing edge preorbital foramen * and occipital part of the skull. In at least one fossil specimen, the crest had a short bony base, also found in related pterosaurs such as Germanodactylus. Bone ridges have only been found on large skeletons of adult pterodactyls, indicating that this structure had a display function and grew larger as the animal grew. Bennett (2013) notes that other authors argue that the pterodactyl's soft tissue ridge continued beyond the skull; Bennett himself did not find any evidence of this. Two samples P. antiquus(holotype BSP AS I 739 and incomplete skull BMMS 7 - largest skull P. antiquus) carry a low bony crest on turtles; in BMMS 7 it is 47.5 mm long (approximately 24% of the estimated total length of the skull) and has a maximum height of 0.9 mm above the orbit.

paleobiology

Age classes

Like other pterosaurs (especially Rhamphorhynchus), pterodactyl specimens can vary greatly depending on age or level of maturity. The proportions of limb bones, the size and shape of the skull, and the size and number of teeth changed as animals grew. Therefore, some species of pterodactyl may turn out to be the same species at different stages of growth, or even completely different genera related to pterodactyl. Several in-depth studies using various methods of measuring growth curves among known specimens indicate that there is in fact only one actual view pterodactyl - P. antiquus .

Youngest immature specimen P. antiquus(alternatively interpreted as a juvenile among individual specimens P. kochi) has a small number of teeth, only 15, and the teeth have a relatively wide base. Teeth of other specimens P. antiquus narrower and more numerous, in some specimens their number reaches 90.

All pterodactyl specimens can be divided into two age classes. In specimens of the first age class, the skulls are 15 to 45 mm long. The second age class is characterized by skulls ranging in length from 55 to 95 mm, but still belonging to immature individuals. These first two size groups were formerly classified as juvenile and adult specimens. P. kochi, until further research showed that even the alleged "adult" individuals were immature, and possibly belong to a separate genus. The third age class is represented by samples of the "traditional" P. antiquus, as well as some specimens assigned to P. kochi, which cover P. antiquus in sizes. However, all third grade specimens also show signs of immaturity. Fully sexually mature individuals of the pterodactyl remain unknown, or may have been erroneously classified as another genus.

Growth and reproduction

Extinct age classes of specimens P. antiquus, show that this species, like the one that lived at the same time Rhamphorhynchus muensteri, most likely reproduced seasonally and grew throughout life. A new generation of the first age class would have been bred during the breeding season and had reached the size of the second age class by the time the next generation had hatched. Thus, clusters of remains of individuals of the same age and size could appear in the geological record. The smallest size type probably included individuals less than one year old that were just beginning to fly. The second age class is represented by samples of individuals from one to two years old, and a rare third class includes samples of individuals older than two years. This growth pattern resembles that of crocodiles rather than the rapid growth of modern birds.

Day behavior patterns

History of study

The type specimen of the animal now known as the pterodactyl was one of the first pterosaurs whose fossils were identified. The first specimen of a pterodactyl was described by the Italian scientist Alessandro Cosimo Collini in 1784, based on a fossil skeleton found in the Solnhofen limestones in Bavaria. Collini was the curator of the "Naturalienkabinett", or "nature's cabinet" (the forerunner of the modern museum concept natural history), in the palace of Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria in Mannheim. The specimen was found in the Eichstätt limestone quarry and transferred to the collection of Friedrich Ferdinand, Count of Pappenheim, around 1780. Exact date discovery of the specimen and entry into the collection is unknown. The specimen was not mentioned in the catalog of the 1767 collection, and therefore must have been acquired between that date and 1784, when Collini described it. This makes it the earliest documented find of a pterosaur. Another specimen known as the "Pester specimen", Pterodactylus micronyx, was described in 1779; it may have been discovered before the Mannheim specimen, but was initially thought to be a fossil crustacean.

Collini, in his first description of the Mannheim specimen, did not recognize the pterodactyl as a flying animal. In fact, Collini could not understand what kind of animal was in front of him, rejecting the resemblance to birds and bats. He suggested that it might have been sea ​​creature but not for a reason anatomical structure, but because of the belief that sea ​​depths hide many unknown animals like this one. The idea that pterosaurs were aquatic animals persisted among some scientists until 1830, when the German zoologist Johann Georg Wagler published a text on "amphibians" that included an illustration of a pterodactyl using its wings as flippers. Wagler went so far as to classify pterodactyls, along with other aquatic vertebrates (namely plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and monotremes), as the class Gryphi, between birds and mammals.

The German-French scientist Johann Hermann was the first to claim that the pterodactyl used the fourth finger of the wing to support the membrane. In March 1800, Herman informed the French naturalist Georges Cuvier of the existence of the Collini fossil, believing it had been captured by Napoleon's army and taken to Paris as a spoils of war; at that time, special French political commissioners systematically seized objects of art and objects of scientific interest. Herman sent Cuvier a letter containing his own interpretation of a specimen (although he did not examine it personally) that he believed to be a mammal, including the first known illustration of a restored pterosaur. Herman drew an animal with a leathery membrane extending from the long ring finger to the ankles, and covered in fur. At the same time, the sample did not retain either the wing membrane or the fur. Herman also added a membrane between the neck and wrist, similar to bats. Cuvier agreed with this interpretation and, at the suggestion of Herman, was the first to publish these ideas in December 1800 in a very short description. Cuvier remarked: “It is impossible to doubt that the long finger served to support the membrane, which, by lengthening the forelimb of this animal, formed a good wing.” However, unlike Hermann, Cuvier was convinced that the animal was a reptile.

The specimen was not actually captured by the French. Most likely in 1802, after the death of Karl Theodor, he was taken to Munich, where Baron Johann Paul Karl von Moll obtained a general exemption from the confiscation of the Bavarian collections. Cuvier asked von Moll for permission to examine the fossil, but was informed that no specimen had been found. In 1809 Cuvier published several more detailed description in which he named the animal " Ptero-Dactyle”and refuted the hypothesis of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach that it was a coastal bird.

Despite von Moll's answer, the fossil was not lost; it was studied by Samuel Thomas Sömmering, who gave a public lecture on it on December 31, 1810. In January 1811 he wrote to Cuvier expressing his regret at having only now been informed of Cuvier's request for information. His lecture was published in 1812, in which Sömmering named the species Ornithocephalus antiquus. The animal has been described both as a mammal (the bat) and as a form between mammals and birds, but not in an intermediate position, but as being in some kind of "affinity" or archetype. Cuvier did not agree with this and in the same year in his work " Ossemen fossils" has provided long description, in which he once again confirmed that the animal was a reptile. This was until 1817, when another specimen of the pterodactyl was brought to light, again from Solnhofen. This tiny specimen was described in the same year by Sömmering as Ornithocephalus brevirostris, so named because of the short muzzle. Now this specimen is regarded as a juvenile, and not necessarily of the same genus; most likely it is a ctenochasma. He published the first restoration of a pterosaur skeleton. This reconstruction was highly inaccurate: Sömmering confused the long metacarpal bones with the bones of the forearm, the bones of the forearm with the humerus, the humerus with the sternum, and the sternum with the shoulder blades. Sömmering did not change his mind, considering these life forms to be bats, and this model of interpretation of pterosaurs in the scientific community lasted for a long time - at least until 1860, when they were considered reptiles. Pterosaurs were represented at the time as quadrupedal, clumsy on the ground, furry, warm-blooded animals with ankle-length membranes on their wings. Some of these hypotheses have been confirmed by modern researchers, some have been refuted, some remain controversial.

Classification

The genus known today as pterodactyl was originally named by Cuvier " P et ro-Dactyle in 1809, although this was a typographical error later corrected to Ptéro-Dactyle. In 1812, Samuel Thomas Sömmering named the same specimen Ornithocephalus antiquus. The name of the genus has been corrected to the current one. Pterodactylus Constantin Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. Unfamiliar with the publication of Rafinesque, Cuvier in 1819 also corrected the name of the genus, and the specific name he gave, longirostris, takes precedence over antiquus Sömmering. In 1888, Richard Lydekker gave the name Pterodactylus antiquus as a typical species. The original specimen is the holotype of the genus BSP no. AS.I.739.

Kinds

Since its discovery, many species have been assigned to the genus Pterodactylus. In the first half of the 19th century, any new species was assigned to the genus Pterodactylus, which thus quickly became a wastebasket of taxa. Even after distinctly different specimens were given their own generic names, new specimens were regularly recovered from the rich deposits of the Late Jurassic German deposits and new species were created, often based on slightly different material.

The revision carried out Peter Wellnhofer around 1980, reduced the number of species to about half a dozen. Many of the species classified as pterodactyls were based on juveniles that later turned out to be juveniles of other genera and species. By the 1990s, it became clear that this was also true for most of the remaining species. For example, P. elegans in many studies it was classified as an immature specimen of ctenochasma. Another type of pterodactyl, originally based on a small, chick, was P. micronyx. However, it was difficult to reliably determine to which genus and species the juvenile form belongs. P. micronyx. Stéphane Juve, Christopher Bennett and others once suggested that it was either Gnathosaurus subulatus, or one of the types of ctenochasma, although, after additional research, Bennett assigned it to the genus Aurorazhdarcho .

Another view from complex history is P. longicollum, named by von Mayer in 1854 based on a large specimen with long neck and fewer teeth. Many researchers, including David Unwin, have found P. longicollum very different from P. kochi and P. antiquus. Unwin discovered a great affinity P. longicollum With Germanodactylus and therefore requiring a new generic name. It is sometimes placed in the genus Diopecephalus, because Harry Govir Seely created this genus partly from fossil material P. longicollum. However, Bennett showed that the type specimen referred to Diopecephalus, was the material P. kochi and it should not be considered separately from the genus Pterodactylus. That's why Diopecephalus is a synonym for pterodactyl and, as such, is not available for use as a new genus P. longicollum. In the end, P. longicollum became the type species for a separate genus Ardeadactylus. In 2014 P. scolopaciceps, which was previously regarded as a junior synonym, was moved to its own genus Aerodactylus .

The only species that were well studied and represented by extensive material, left in the first decades of the 21st century, were P. antiquus and P. kochi. However, most studies between 1995 and 2010 found little reason to divide even into these two species, and treated them as synonyms. In 1996, Bennett suggested that differences between samples P. kochi and P. antiquus can be explained by age differences. In a 2004 paper, Juve used a different method of analysis and arrived at the same result, showing that distinctive features P. kochi associated with age, and also used mathematical comparison to prove that the two forms are different growth stages of the same species. Additional analysis of samples published in 2013 showed that some of the suggested differences between P. antiquus and P. kochi occurred due to measurement errors, which also confirms their synonymy. However, in 2014 Steven Vidovic and David Martill concluded that the differences between P. antiquus and P. kochi(including shorter cervical vertebrae in P. kochi) are significant enough to distinguish between them. Vidovic and Martill also performed a phylogenetic analysis, where they processed all relevant specimens as separate units, and found the type specimen. P. kochi not forming a clade with P. antiquus. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the Diopecephalus can be restored for distinction "P". kochi from P. antiquus and even suggested that Germanodactylus rhamphastinus may have been adult form "P". kochi, due in part to short neck vertebrae and larger size.

see also

Notes

1. Zhuravlev A. Yu. Wing-lizards // Before and after dinosaurs. - M. : Veche, 2006. - 352 p. - (Great secrets). - ISBN 5-9533-1258-X.
2. Schweigert, G. Ammonite biostratigraphy as a tool for dating Upper Jurassic lithographic limestones from South Germany - first results and open questions // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. - 2007. - Vol. 245, no. one . - P. 117-125. - DOI:10.1127/0077-7749/2007/0245-0117 .
3. Bennett, S.C. New information on body size and cranial display structures of Pterodactylus antiquus, with a revision of the genus (English) // Paläontologische Zeitschrift: in press. - 2013. - DOI:10.1007/s12542-012-0159-8. .
4. Bennett, S.C. Year-classes of pterosaurs from the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany: Taxonomic and Systematic Implications (English) // Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . - 1996. - Vol. 16, no. 3 . - P. 432-444. - DOI:10.1080/02724634.1996.10011332 .
5. Bennett, S.C. Soft tissue preservation of the cranial crest of the pterosaur Germanodactylus from Solnhofen (English) // Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. - 2002. - Vol. 22, no. one . - P. 43-48. - DOI :10.1671/0272-4634(2002)0222.0.CO;2 .
6. Jove, S. Description of the skull of a Ctenochasma(Pterosauria) from the latest Jurassic of eastern France, with a taxonomic revision of European Tithonian Pterodactyloidea (English) // Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. - 2004. - Vol. 24, no. 3 . - P. 542-554. -

Pterodactyl Pterodactyl- "fingerwing".
Period of existence: Jurassic period- about 155-145 million years.
Squad: Pterosaurs
Suborder: Pterodactyloids
Dimensions: The size of the pterodactyl varies greatly. From very small (the size of pigeons) to giant ornithocheirus (with a wingspan of 12 meters).
Pterodactyl- pterosaur jurassic. Pterosaurs are reptiles adapted to flight. Pterosaurs are divided into two suborders, rhamphorhynchoids and pterodactyloids.Pterodactyl- a typical representative of the suborder of tperodactyloids.pterodactyl skull Pterodactyl head:Head pterodactyl was quite large in relation to the size of the body. Scull pterodactyl strongly elongated with a characteristic crest and toothless beak. Although some pterosaurs had teeth. The skull, like the entire skeleton, is lightweight. Pterodactyl had a fairly well developed brain.The cerebellum, the area of ​​the brain responsible for the coordination of movements, was especially well developed. Vision pterodactyl I was well developed, Considering the way of obtaining food, the pterodactyl must have seen from a great distance.The body structure of a pterodactyl:pterodactyl structure Pterodactyls had light and hollow bones of the skeleton. The spine consisted of 8 cervical, 10-15 dorsal, 4-10 sacral and 10-40 caudal vertebrae. The chest was wide and had a high keel. The shoulder blades were long, the pelvic bones were fused.pterodactyl structure
P forelimbs pterodactyl were very long in relation to body size. They ended in four fingers, one of which was unusually long and was part of the supporting structure of the wing. A membrane was attached to it, forming a wing. The membranous wing stretched from the back side of the forelimb to the sides of the body to the very legs.
The shape of the membrane was additionally supported by a network of rigid fibers running through the skin, oriented in the same directions as the shafts of feathers in birds or fingers in bats. This frame did not allow the wing to fall off, protected it from wear and made it more aerodynamic. membranous wing pterodactyl was similar to the wing of modern bats. Feathers, like those of modern birds, pterodactyls was not, but there was a small coat of hair. The tail of pterodactyloids is either very short or completely absent. The hind limbs were much shorter than the front, but were in proportion to the size of the body. The hind limbs ended with three clawed fingers.Lifestyle of a pterodactyl: Pterodactyls led a predominantly daytime lifestyle, and at night they slept clinging to tree branches with their claws. Pterodactyls could not take off from a flat surface, therefore, opening their claws, they fell down and at the moment of falling spread their wings.
The most characteristic representatives of pterosaurs - pterodactyl and rhamphorhynchus