Researcher Uncovers More Information About Rare Pterosaur

The giant animal needed cliffs, downward-sloping runways to taxi and awkwardly take off into air.

They could have wingspans of up to 10.4 meters, longer than a wingspan of an F-16 Fighter Jet.

They could have wingspans of up to 10.4 meters, longer than the wingspan of an F-16 Fighter Jet.

It weighed about 155 pounds and had a 34-foot wingspan, close to the size of an F-16 fighter jet. A five-foot-long skull looked down from a standing height similar to that of a modern giraffe. By all measures, the ancient pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus was a Texas-sized giant of the air and created a frightening shadow as it soared across the sky.

It pushed the very boundaries of size to the brink and is considered the largest flying animal yet to be discovered. Any larger, and it would have had to walk. But its bulk caused researchers to wonder how such a heavy animal with relatively flimsy wings became airborne.

Sankar Chatterjee, Horn Professor of Geosciences and curator of paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University, recently described the flight dynamics of this animal during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Charlotte, N.C.

Using a computer simulation, Chatterjee and his colleagues unraveled the secrets of the flight for the massive pterosaur, discovered in the Big Bend area of Texas, which has captured the imagination of paleontologists and public so profoundly.


Speculation exists on what this animal looked like, Chatterjee said. Some researchers suggested recently that Quetzalcoatlus could have weighed up to 550 pounds and used forelimbs as a catapult in the same manner of a common vampire bat to create a standing takeoff.

However, Chatterjee said that computer modeling proved what is possible for a tiny, lightweight, 1-ounce bat appeared impossible for an animal 10,000 times heavier.

Flight performance seems to degrade systematically with body size because power decreases with body size, he said. Above a particular size, the available power is insufficient and flapping flight is not possible. The animal would not be able to maintain height when flying at its maximum power speed and exert full power.

“Its enormous wings must have been difficult to manage,” Chatterjee said. “Each wing had at least a 16-foot span, so during its full downstroke it would smash its wing resulting in crash landing. A standing takeoff of flying of such a heavy animal violates the laws of physics.”

Bones of Quetzalcoatlus were first discovered in the Big Bend area of Texas.


Like today’s condors and other large birds, Quetzalcoatlus probably relied on updraft to remain in the air, Chatterjee said. It was a superb glider with a gliding angle close to two degrees and a cruising speed of 36 miles per hour. Their bones were entirely hollow, filled with air, lightweight and strong. This is how such a large animal could weigh so little and still grow to its enormous size.

The animal had high-aspect-ratio wings like those of modern seabirds, meaning the wings were long, narrow, flat and pointed. It soared in open airspace by exploiting thermals or wind gradient above the ocean surface. Trading for size, the wings were structurally weak for vigorous flapping, causing the pterosaur difficulty during ground takeoff.


Department of Geosciences

Department of Geosciences




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