Sunday, September 25, 2011

The 101 on the Amazing Pterodactyl Dinosaur

By Pat Ryan


One world that is amazing and fun to learn about is the world of dinosaurs. Both small and big, There are many different types of these creatures. Some of these animals have armor, while others do not. Some are meat eaters, while others are plant eaters. We are going to focus right now on the pterodactyl dinosaur which is a creature that catches the minds of many individuals although there are a large variety. You are going to find a description of this miraculous creature in the paragraphs below.

First of all, we are going to take a deeper look at the physical description of this animal. Pterodactyl basically means "winged lizard". If you think about it, the Pterodactyl is technically a mammal as the word "dinosaurs" is used in reference to animals that roam the land and since it was a reptile that flied during the dino era, it is a good idea to understand this creature. It had wings that were attached to the forth finger on each of its arms. The wings on this creature could extend to up to forty feet long.

We are going to take a look at the lifestyle of this creature at this point. This animal tends to live in caves and tall trees. They enjoyed feasting on large insects and staying near the ocean They have the ability to quickly fly because of the leathery material covering their long arms.

These were the only reptiles that were able to fly during the dino era. Mind you, they did not have wings like the birds you know of today's realm. They have four "fingers" and three of them would end halfway up the wing. The last finger extended to the last part of the wing. They believe these animals walked on all four legs.

They lived during the Jurassic and cretaceous periods. Their fossils have been found all over North America, Europe, Africa and Australia. It is not true that they were completely covered in feathers like you might be thinking. Some of them had bodies that were covered in fur.

They had a skull crest, but no one understands exactly how they used the skull crest. The skull crest is one of the most unique features of this dino. Some believe he/she utilized the crest for a mid-flight rudder, which does make sense. Then, you have others that believe it was a characteristic that was sexually selected. The male with the biggest crest gets to mate with more females just for instance.

The first Pterosaur to be found was the Pterodactylus. During the eighteenth century, the Pterodactylus was found. Since they would find them around the ocean, some mistakenly thought this animal was a bizarre amphibian that used wings as flippers.

There is no telling what these animals looked like in appearance, but with the bones, we recognize the figure of it. Some believe they looked more like a bird but for all we know, these animals could have had an appearance of a reptile. With the appearance, we will just have to let our creative imagination flow.




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