Pterodactylus | Facts & Information

Pterodactylus was an interesting flying, carnivorous dinosaur that lived in the Upper Jurassic, Mesozoic era. The first fossil remains of a Pterodactylus specimen were discovered by naturalist A. Cosmo Collini in 1784 in Germany.

Head

The researchers estimated the size of an adult specimen as the following: wingspan of 0.3-2 m and body weight of 1.8-2 kg. The skull was pointed, flat and elongated, and the upper part in some specimens was straight and in others slightly convex.

The nasal area forms a right angle with the jaw line. The large jaws of this dinosaur were entirely endowed with numerous sharp and conical teeth, in larger numbers on the upper jaw and smaller on the lower one, which had a slightly different shape – it was straight and flat.

The skull measured only 10 cm in length, and the beak was extraordinarily long. The position of the head was slightly bent forward due to the angle formed between the skull and the neck.

Body

Paleontologists reconstructed the complete skeleton of this prehistoric animal and concluded that if viewed as a whole it had an impressive appearance, the body was relatively narrow, the pelvic bones elongated, and the forelimbs and hind limbs very thin.

The tail was very short, stiff, made up of only a few vertebrae. The sternum looked rather fragile and had an oval shape. The forearm was long, the humerus short and slightly curved, the wrist of the paw was very small, and the metacarpal bones not very long.

The forelimbs had four fingers each provided with sharp claws, three of which were of medium length and the fourth very long with the role of supporting the wing. The hind limbs were long, had a straight femur, ended with four rather long fingers, provided with small, hard and curved claws.

The skeleton of a Pterodactylus was extremely light, being made up of hollow bones inside, and the heart and lungs provided the necessary blood and oxygen in all parts of the body. It turns out that it was a warm-blooded animal, because it had constant temperature throughout the body. His wings and body were probably covered in fur – which protected him from the cold in the cold months.

They lived in colonies, took great care of their young, and the fact that they developed very quickly was probably due to the fact that they were fed very well, especially with insects and less with fish.

On the ground they moved harder on their thin limbs, but in flight they reached high speeds, hovering letting themselves be carried by the wind, and with vertical beats of wings they landed on the hind limbs far apart. At night they stood side by side like bats, clutched by tree branches and hanging upside down, holding their wings tight and close to their bodies.

Feeding Pterodactylus

This short-tailed flying dinosaur lived in areas near water courses and fed on various small animals, fish and insects.