In 1801, the remains of an unknown creature accidentally fall into the hands of a French scientist, along with a stone slab on which the depicted silhouette is clearly visible.

Having carefully studied the material found, Georges Cuvier made a preliminary conclusion that, in all likelihood, this type of dinosaur had the ability to fly.

It was Georges Cuvier who gave the name to this flying lizard - “pterodactyl”.

Pterodactyl had very light and hollow bones, which allowed it to fly. The sizes of this dinosaur ranged from the smallest size of a sparrow to especially gigantic ones with a wingspan of up to 12 meters.

The wings were a kind of fold of skin. One end was attached to the body, and the second edge was fixed on the toes of the forelimbs.

The cervical vertebrae are fused into a long section of the spine. The paws had fingers, which made it possible for the pterodactyl to grab fish on the fly right out of the water.

Pterodactyl remains have been found everywhere from North America to the Russian Volga region. The structure of the skull and teeth indicates its herbivorous preferences, including fish selection. Also, apparently, he ate all kinds of insects. There is a theory that they did not hesitate to plunder the nests and feast on the eggs of their fellow tribesmen.

The pterodactyl's teeth are small and sparsely set, and the head is large with an elongated beak. But later pterodactyls no longer had teeth; their beak was identical to modern birds. The wings of a pterodactyl are nothing more than membranes between the fingers. Something very similar can be seen in bats.

Skeleton of a pterodactyl - a flying dinosaur.

Examining the remains, scientists claim that pterodactyls did not fly very confidently, but could hover in the air for a long time and soar.

The pterodactyl had a tail, not very long, but irreplaceable for it in flight; it was with the help of the tail that it directed its flight like a rudder. Thanks to its tail, the pterodactyl had the ability to maneuver sharply, instantly drop down and rapidly accelerate upward. It can definitely be argued that it was the pterodactyl that became the progenitor of modern birds.

The organization of the pterodactyl's limbs indicates that on land they were absolutely helpless and could only move by crawling. They rarely ventured onto land; due to their helplessness, they became easy prey for predators. But in the air during flights, they were practically in no danger. Therefore, they slept with their heads down, clinging to a branch or a rocky ledge with their paws.

During the process of evolution, the pterodactyl's tail decreased until it disappeared completely, this is associated with the establishment and development of the brain, which directed and coordinated the movements of the pterodactyl.

The pterodactyl died out 145 million years ago, and its dawn occurred in Cretaceous period. Pterodactyls are gregarious animals that prefer to gather in large groups. They raised their offspring in nests, and nested on steep cliffs in close proximity to the seas and oceans. Pterodactyls very carefully monitored the development and growth of their offspring, carefully fed them fish, taught them to fly, and live in a flock.

Pterodactyl is the first animal known to scientists, which is 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 were very reminiscent of 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 skeletal bones 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's wings themselves consisted of folds of skin that were attached to the bones on the wrists and to every fourth finger. The name of this dinosaur means “Finger-wing”.

Pterodactyl sizes

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

What did Pterodactyl eat?

Presumably, these lizards were able to cling to rocks, then push off from them and glide through the air over the surface of a reservoir. Since pterodactyls had digits on their paws, this anatomy allowed them to snatch fish out of the water in flight. 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; to take off, this animal had to climb a tree or rock, and then soar, spreading its wings. These lizards climbed trees, mountains and rocks very well, but they were practically unable to move on land; moving on the surface of the earth was difficult for them. Such circumstances made them very easy prey for other dinosaurs.
Quetzalcoatlus and Pteranodon are considered the most prominent representatives of pterodactyls.

Tailless pterosaurs of the suborder Pterodactyls 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 “babies” to actively fly (simply drawing parallels with modern bats), the giants were puzzling - modern birds, having a more advanced mechanism for flight, with such sizes simply would not be able to rise into the air, lizards however, having relatively weak muscles of the shoulder girdle and a heavy wing-membrane, apparently, they spent most of their lives in the air - this despite the fact that the force of gravity on Earth was then somewhat higher than modern. 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 found itself on a flat surface was allegedly doomed due to the inability to rise into the air again.

Modern calculations show that even the largest pterosaurs could fly quite actively, despite the fact that they were similar in size to a modern giraffe. These two-hundred-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 take-off; it took them less than one second to lift off the surface of the earth (without any need to throw themselves into the abyss) in order to fly.

But they did not fly at all like birds, although, by analogy, they are depicted everywhere very similarly - with their heads stretched forward, like a goose’s. At most, they could float in a similar way. But in order to flap their wings in the avian 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 physically can send a signal to the muscles. This is explained by the resonance effect - the hard 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 taking a long elastic bar by the middle and shaking it. If you lower and raise your hand to the beat, then with very little energy you can achieve an amplitude of swings with a frequency of several hertz - the ends of the staff become translucent. If you lose the rhythm, then the resistance of the bar to the movement of your hand immediately noticeably increases.

It is difficult to accelerate a large wing, and then even more difficult to brake it in order to move it in reverse side, they cannot be flapped to their full amplitude from a standstill, but by gradually accelerating up and down, flapping even very large wings can be brought to a very high frequency. All that remains is 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 a force (jerk) with a move 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 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 flap the wing makes raking movements, and lift and thrust will begin to be created. This is what we have in the case of the pterodactyl wing - leading edge formed by the bones of the limb, and the plane 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 its wings would lead to the fact that the body would shift in the opposite direction. As the force of the swings increases, 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 will simply not be possible to perform it. If, in order to compensate for this undesirable phenomenon, we increase body weight, it will turn out that the lifting force created by the wings will not be enough to lift off the ground.

Pterosaurs solved this problem in an 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 body, head and neck are approximately the same. With this arrangement, the center of gravity was in the neck, and the entire system was set in motion by bending the neck in a vertical plane - energetically swinging the head up and down (or, in the case of a vertical body position, back and forth). In this case, the head played the role of a counterweight, storing energy, and at the other end of the “swing” there were wings - the head swung like a pendulum, the wings moved back and forth stronger and stronger. 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 back with each swing. Objectively, this theory is supported by the fact that the brain of pterodactyls was suspended in an air sac that absorbed shaking (which is not observed in birds) - with such use of the head, the brain should have been subject to significant overloads.

Adjustment of the moment of inertia of the head (to put it more simply, its mass) was carried out by a combination of two methods - by pumping blood into the head from the body (numerous traces of blood vessels were preserved 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 ridge.

The take-off of the pterodactyl could have been almost vertical, from a standstill - only the wings accelerated, while the pterosaur remained in place. Having gained altitude, he lay down on the wing - switched to a horizontal position and continued the flight in gliding mode. At the same time, he could, if necessary, add speed by sharp jerks of his head with simultaneous sharp downward flapping of his wings and their slow rise. However, the rest of the time, during horizontal flight, the heavy head was no longer needed, but on the contrary, it was a hindrance. This problem was solved, again, in two ways. Firstly, blood from the head was pumped into the body, thereby shifting the center of gravity. Secondly, the head could take a position below the body, similar to the pilot’s position of a classic hang glider. This easily achieved optimal flight stability and control efficiency - just small change position of the head, the transverse inclination of the flight plane relative to the horizon changed, 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 (that is, 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 affecting its flight characteristics.

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

As biologists call pterodactyl (a flying dinosaur, a flying lizard, and even a flying dragon), they agree that it was the first classified winged reptile and possibly the ancestor of modern birds.

Description of pterodactyl

The Latin term Pterodactylus goes back to Greek roots translated as “winged finger”: pterodactylus received this name due to the highly elongated fourth finger of the forelimbs, to which a leathery wing was attached. Pterodactyl is classified as a genus/suborder of the broad order of pterosaurs, and is considered not only the very first described pterosaur, but also the most mentioned flying lizard in the history of paleontology.

Appearance, dimensions

The pterodactyl looked less like a reptile and more like a clumsy bird with a huge (like) beak and large wings. Pterodactylus antiquus (the first and most famous identified species) was not impressive in size - its wingspan was equal to 1 meter. Other types of pterodactyls, according to paleontologists who analyzed over 30 fossil remains (full skeletons and fragments), were even smaller. The adult digitwing had a long and relatively thin skull, with narrow, straight jaws, where conical needle-like teeth grew (researchers counted 90).

The largest teeth were located in front and gradually became smaller towards the throat. Skull and jaws of a pterodactyl (as opposed to related species) were straight and did not bend upward. The head sat on a flexible, elongated neck, where there were no cervical ribs, but cervical vertebrae were visible. The back of the head was decorated with a high, leathery crest that grew as the pterodactyl grew older. Despite their rather large dimensions, fingerwings flew well - this ability was provided to them by light and hollow bones, to which wide wings were attached.

Important! The wing was a huge leathery fold (similar to the wing of a bat), fixed on the fourth finger and wrist bones. The hind limbs (with fused shin bones) were inferior in length to the forelimbs, where half fell on the fourth finger, crowned with a long claw.

The flight fingers folded, and the wing membrane was made up of thin, skin-covered muscles supported by keratin ridges on the outside and collagen fibers on the inside. The body of the pterodactyl was covered with light down and gave the impression of almost weightlessness (against the backdrop of powerful wings and a huge head). True, not all reconstructors depicted a pterodactyl with a narrow body - for example, Johann Hermann (1800) painted it as quite plump.

Opinions differ about the tail: some paleontologists are convinced that it was originally very small and did not play any role, others talk about a quite decent tail that disappeared during the process of evolution. Adherents of the second theory talk about the irreplaceability of the tail, with which the pterodactyl taxied in the air - maneuvered, instantly descended or rapidly soared into the air. Biologists “blame” the brain for the death of the tail, the development of which led to the reduction and disappearance of the tail process.

Character and lifestyle

Pterodactyls are classified as highly organized animals, suggesting that they led a diurnal and gregarious lifestyle. It is still debatable whether pterodactyls could effectively flap their wings, while free soaring is not in doubt - volumetric air flows easily supported the lightweight membranes of outstretched wings. Most likely, the fingerwings fully mastered the mechanics of flapping flight, which was still different from those of modern birds. The pterodactyl's method of flight probably resembled an albatross, smoothly flapping its wings in a short arc, but avoiding sudden movements.

Periodically, the flapping flight was interrupted by free soaring. You just need to take into account that the albatross does not have long neck and a huge head, which is why the picture of its movements cannot 100% coincide with the flight of a pterodactyl. Another controversial topic (with two opposing camps) is whether it was easy for the pterodactyl to take off from a flat surface. The first camp has no doubt that the winged lizard easily took off from level ground, including the surface of the sea.

This is interesting! Their opponents insist that the pterodactyl needed certain height(rock, cliff or tree), where he climbed with the help of tenacious paws, pushed off, dived down, spreading his wings, and only then rushed up.

In general, the fingerwing climbed well on any hills and trees, but walked extremely slowly and clumsily on flat land: it was hampered by folded wings and bent fingers, which served as an inconvenient support.

Swimming was much better - the webbed feet turned into flippers, making launching into the water quick and efficient. Keen vision helped quickly navigate when searching for prey - the pterodactyl saw where the sparkling schools of fish were moving. By the way, it was in the sky that pterodactyls felt safe, which is why they slept (like bats) in the air: with their heads down, clinging to a branch/rocky ledge with their paws.

Lifespan

Considering that pterodactyls were warm-blooded animals (and possibly the ancestors of modern birds), their lifespan should be calculated by analogy with the lifespan of modern birds, equal in size to the extinct species. In this case, one should rely on data about eagles or vultures living for 20–40, and sometimes 70 years.

Discovery history

The first pterodactyl skeleton was discovered in Germany (Bavaria), or rather in the Solnhofen limestones, located near Eichstätt.

History of misconceptions

In 1780, the remains of an animal unknown to science joined the collection of Count Friedrich Ferdinand, and four years later they were described by Cosmo Alessandro Collini, a French historian and staff secretary of Voltaire. Collini oversaw the natural history department (Naturalienkabinett), opened at the palace of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria. The fossil is recognized as the earliest recorded discovery of either a pterodactyl (in the narrow sense) or a pterosaur (in the general sense).

This is interesting! There is another skeleton that claims primacy - the so-called “Pester specimen”, classified in 1779. But these remains were initially attributed to an extinct species of crustacean.

Collini, who began to describe the exhibit from Naturalienkabinett, did not want to recognize the pterodactyl as a flying animal (stubbornly rejecting the resemblance to bats and birds), but insisted on his belonging to aquatic fauna. The theory of aquatic animals, pterosaurs, was supported for quite some time.

In 1830, an article by the German zoologist Johann Wagler appeared about certain amphibians, supplemented by an image of a pterodactyl, whose wings were used as flippers. Wagler went further and included pterodactyl (along with other aquatic vertebrates) in a special class "Gryphi", located between mammals and birds.

Hermann's hypothesis

The fact that the fourth finger of the limb was needed by the pterodactyl to hold the wing membrane was guessed by the French zoologist Jean German. Moreover, in the spring of 1800, it was Jean Hermann who notified the French naturalist Georges Cuvier of the existence of the remains (described by Collini), worried that Napoleon's soldiers would take them to Paris. The letter addressed to Cuvier also contained the author's interpretation of the fossils, accompanied by an illustration - a black and white drawing of a creature with open, rounded wings stretched from ring finger to the furry ankles.

Inspired by the appearance of bats, Herman placed the membrane between the neck and wrist, despite the absence of membrane/fur fragments in the sample itself. Herman did not have the opportunity to personally examine the remains, but he classified the extinct animal as a mammal. In general, Cuvier agreed with the interpretation of the image proposed by Hermann, and, having previously shortened it, even published his notes in the winter of 1800. True, unlike Herman, Cuvier classified the extinct animal as a reptile.

This is interesting! In 1852, a bronze pterodactyl was supposed to decorate a plant garden in Paris, but the project was suddenly canceled. The sculptures of pterodactyls were nevertheless installed, but two years later (1854) and not in France, but in England - in the Crystal Palace, erected in Hyde Park (London).

Named Pterodactyl

In 1809 the public became acquainted with more detailed description winged lizard from Cuvier, where he gave the find its first scientific name Ptero-Dactyle, derived from the Greek roots πτερο (wing) and δάκτυλος (finger). At the same time, Cuvier destroyed Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's assumption that the species belonged to coastal birds. At the same time, it turned out that the fossils were not captured by the French army, but were in the possession of the German physiologist Samuel Thomas Semmering. He examined the remains until he read a note dated December 31, 1810, which spoke of their disappearance, and already in January 1811, Semmering reassured Cuvier that the find was intact.

Cuvier objected to Semmering in a counter article, arguing that the remains belonged to a reptile. In 1817, a second, miniature specimen of a pterodactyl was dug up in the Solnhofen deposit, which (due to its shortened snout) Soemmering named Ornithocephalus brevirostris.

Important! Two years earlier, in 1815, the American zoologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, based on the works of Georges Cuvier, proposed using the term Pterodactylus to designate the genus.

Already in our time, all known finds have been thoroughly analyzed (using different methods), and the research results were published in 2004. Scientists have come to the conclusion that there is only one species of pterodactyl – Pterodactylus antiquus.

Pterodactyl- pterosaur Jurassic period . Pterosaurs are reptiles adapted to flight. Pterosaurs are divided into two suborders: rhamphorhynchoids and pterodactyloids.Pterodactyl- a typical representative of the tperodactyloid suborder.

The cerebellum, the area of ​​the brain responsible for coordinating movements, was especially well developed. Vision pterodactyl I was well developed. Considering the way it obtained food, the pterodactyl had to be able to see from a great distance.

Pterodactyl body structure:

pterodactyl structure

Pterodactylshad light and hollow skeleton bones. 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 comparison with body size. They ended in four fingers, one of which was unusually long and was part of the wing's supporting structure. A membrane was attached to it, forming a wing. The membranous wing extended from the back of the forelimb to the sides of the body all the way to the 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 feather shafts of birds or the fingers of bats. This frame prevented the wing from collapsing, protected it from wear and made it more aerodynamic. Membranous wing pterodactyl it looked like the wing of modern bats. Feathers, like modern birds, have pterodactyls there was none, but there was a small amount of fur. The tail of pterodactyloids is either very short or completely absent. The hind limbs were much shorter than the front ones, but were proportional to the size of the body. The hind limbs ended in three clawed fingers.

Pterodactyl lifestyle:

Pterodactyls They led a predominantly diurnal 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 spread their wings at the moment of falling.

The most characteristic representatives of pterosaurs are pterodactyl And