The Largest Animal To Ever Fly Wasn't Quetzalcoatlus

If you thought the Quetzalcoatlus was the baddest (I know that is not a word) Pterosaur around 66 MYA, you may have to think again, because here comes the Hatzegopteryx .

If you want more ExtinctZoo 🦖:

0:00 Intro
1:25 Discovery & Naming
2:13 Size
3:41 How It Go So Big
4:27 Frankenstein Head & Neck
5:28 A Dinosaur Killer
6:21 Other Prey
6:37 Flight Capabilities
8:28 Hateg Island Environment
8:51 Animals It Lived With
9:55 Climate
10:08 Extinction

Artwork in thumbnail by Rudolf Hima

Music:
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.

[mhdfrb]

Large pterosaurs like Hatzegopteryx and Quetzalcoatlus were typically not taking off every five seconds. They would likely only take off every so often and only when traveling massive distances. For shorter distances, they would just gallop. A common misconception is that pterosaurs were clumsy on the ground like some bats. Footprints showed that Pterosaurs were instead perfectly capable of running/galloping and walking comfortably on the ground. In fact, for the massive Azhdarchids, the current accepted theory amongst paleontologists is that this giant creatures would hunt on the ground regularly and run down and swallow prey whole.

Large flying birds like condors are much less efficient at taking off compared to pterosaurs because they only use their hindlimbs. Pterosaurs (and some bats) used all four of their limbs to take off, meaning that the flight muscles directly come into play in launching. This is a big part of why the largest pterosaurs could still fly.

[Mr.Marketing]

Just when you thought modern paleontologists were taking away your childhood’s 80 foot Liopleurodon, and 9 meter Big Al. They publish a cessna spanning, dino devouring, two story terrestrial pterosaur to pterrorize your dreams.

[posticusmaximus]

A dwarf titanosaur is such an oxymoron

[justsomejerseydevilwithint]

Quetzalcoatlus if it didn't skip Neck Day

[gcstudios]

"And an un-named snake."
Allow me... I hereby proclaim this snake's name to be Jeff. You can thank me later.

[Cedestra]

See, I was initially scared of the Quetzlcoatlus because of its size, thinking that I could have been its prey if I traveled back in time (I know, silly fear). Then, I realized that Azhdharkids' throats were probably too small to swallow a human, like a blue whale. I became at peace with their former existence. Now you're telling me that they wouldn't have swallowed me in one gulp, but stabbed me and tortured me before I died and became chunks of meat for the Hatzegopteryx. Back to square one.

[notoriousbigmoai]

Some birds evolved to be flightless. Could this happen to Pterosaurs?

[brianhartwelldrawingchanne]

Can we just stop and consider how wild it is to think an animal as fantastical as this actually existed?

[It_was_perfect]

These animals were terrifying. There's something so uncanny about these larger pterosaurs. The fact that their head is so big and neck so long while still being able to fly looks something straight out of a horror fiction. They are just amazing! Thank you for the video!

[ndenz]

This is absolutely stunning! It's geometry alone is like nothing else I've ever seen.

[aaronmarks]

It would be so cool to be a biologist sent back in time to do field research on Hatzeg Island. Cool, and terrifying.

[davidboyle]

Of all the prehistoric animals, these flying behemoths strike me as some of the most fascinating. Early hypotheses were that these flying reptiles needed to launch themselves from cliffs, which I always thought was ridiculous. Oh, and that they were only capable of soaring, which I also thought was very unlikely. I’ve come to believe that these animals were capable of flying through use of musculature within their wings that allowed them to modify their shape in ways unlike any flying creature before or after. They had to be a magnificent sight… so long as you could watch from hiding!

Great episode on an animal I had not heard of before. Thx for posting.

[abydosianchulac]

3:13 Well, that's a terrifying way of demonstrating size

[imeleventeen]

This was true until Lizzo bought a private jet

[g.k.]

That thing having a bowl movement while flying overhead would have been terrifying enough.

[Andreas_]

If you like Pterosaurs and ever visit Karlsruhe in Germany, pay the Natural History Museum a visit. They have a full size model of a Pterosaur in flight, hanging off the ceiling where the stairs lead to the upper floor. It's quite impressive.

Edit: Grammar.

[robwalsh]

Azhdarchids were to the sky what tyrannosaurs were to the land and mosasaurs to the sea.
Being hunted by one sounds like a some terrifying story out of mythology.

[QxTYoko]

Best parts about dinosaurs is they probably dont look like what we're constantly seeing them as. Until a safe time travel is possible, we will never know.

[trailseeker]

Quetzalcoatlus Northropi was bigger at 33- 40 ft wingspan and 18-20 ft tall, but that could be outdated due to the ever-changing field of paleontology, thx for the video none the less!

[Adex]

Its funny…T-rex’s and sabertooths don’t scare me much. But this thing…the fact it once existed gives me a severe case of the creeps