How Were Pterosaurs Adapted for Flight?

Pterosaurs were the first animals after insects to evolve powered flight—not just leaping or gliding, but flapping their wings to generate lift and travel through the air. They evolved into dozens of species: Some were as large as an F-16 fighter jet, and others as small as a paper airplane.

Pterosaurs flew with their forelimbs: Their long, tapering wings evolved from the same body part as our arms. As pterosaurs' arm and hand bones evolved for flying, they lengthened, and the bones of one finger—the equivalent of our ring finger—became extraordinarily long. Like the mast on a ship, these bones supported the wing surface, a thin flap of skin that was shaped like a sail.

Although many animals can glide through the air, pterosaurs, birds and bats are the only vertebrates that have evolved to fly by flapping their wings. All three groups descended from animals that lived on the ground, and their wings evolved in a similar way: their forelimbs gradually became long, bladelike and aerodynamic.

Although they have much in common, pterosaurs, birds and bats developed the ability to fly independently. Their wings evolved along different paths, and the difference can be seen in their structure.

#pterosaurs #flyingdinosaurs #dinosaurs #flight #flying #wings #evolution #adaptations

Episode 1: What Is a Pterosaur?

Episode 2: Why Are Pterosaur Fossils So Rare?

Episode 3: Why Did Pterosaurs Have Crests?

Episode 4: How are Pterosaur Names Pronounced?

Episode 5: How Were Pterosaurs Adapted for Flight?

Episode 6: Meet the Paleontologists

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VIDEO CREDITS:

Executive Producer
Hélène Alonso

Director/Editor/Writer
Sarah Galloway

Consultant/Writer
Michael B. Habib

Animation
Camila Engelbert
Joshua Krause

Media Systems Designer
Ariel Nevarez

Editorial Support
Lauri Halderman
Alexandra Nemecek
Martin Schwabacher

Graphic Design
Kelvin Chiang
Dan Ownbey
Catharine Weese

Music
"Everlong Song" by G. Small and F. Gerard/
Warner Chappell Production Music

Footage/Stills Courtesy of
Holger Babinsky, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge
Craig Chesek/AMNH
Footage Bank HD
Nature Footage
Pond5
Shutterstock

Footage Research
José Ramos
Rosemary Rotondi

Narration
Melynda Sims

This video and all media incorporated herein (including text, images, and audio) are the property of the American Museum of Natural History or its licensors, all rights reserved. The Museum has made this video available for your personal, educational use. You may not use this video, or any part of it, for commercial purposes, nor may you reproduce, distribute, publish, prepare derivative works from, or publicly display it without the prior written consent of the Museum.

© American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY

[wyattandrews]

That's the derpiest quetzalcoatlus I've ever seen XD

[Khan-zvzi]

3:04

That is the dodgiest Pterodaustro I have ever seen.

[Akaryusan]

that quetzalcoatlus looks like hes having a great day

[demigod]

the music and background speaker sounds like something you would hear in medicine commericial! xD

[sanjaykumar]

this video is very interesting and informative

[daviddemaria]

Pretty awesome footage they got of this.

[IndriidaeNT]

I love pterosaurs! My favorite pterosaur species have to be Queztalcoatlus, Pteranodon, Rhamphorynchus, Pterodactylus, Nyctosaurus and Dawndraco. I own some books that are about different pterosaur species and their paleontology and natural history like The Princeton Field Guide to Pterosaurs, Dinosaurs: New Visions of a Lost World and Mesozoic Art: Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals in Art. You should create new AMNH Learn With Mes about those books with new dinosaurs and paleontology videos related to those science-reference books like the Andros Barrier Reef Diorama video that came out on Youtube with the Andros Barrier Reef diorama livestream in March 2021.

[Spino]

My own theory is that only the small and medium sized pterosaurs flew or more like glided the skies. The large ones like the hatzegopteryx and the quetzalcoatlus hunted on land, the large ones are the flightless version of the pterosaurs. They also probably glided but only for a short period of time, they jump on cliffs and glide into the ocean and dive underwater to hunt for food.

[sharkfinbite]

I had a professor in earth science class, mineral and dirt formation, those flying extinct critters you might see in a Jurassic park movie had kind of fragile bones a little bit. That scene in Jurassic park 3 where the guy hits the animal he said in real life it would have gotten seriously hurt because it needed to have very light and thin bones making them not so thick to handle certain blows like that. This didn't just applied to these animals but other some other dinos but not all of them. T-rex,  triceratops, and etc. didn't had this problem. Raptors animals did have this. He said it might be confusing at first to figure out how they were so deadly until you remember these things were extremely quick, agile, and precise and some of the large animals didn't ran that fast because of all the weight their bodies had. You're still guaranteed if you tried to attack this thing you won't touch it until it hit your at a vital organ. The question is how durable were these things. And if they were really this fragile how the heck did they avoid not getting hurt. But he said there is a large speculation if they were really this week. Its currently still under debate the last time I heard about it.

[FlyingSnake]

Uh, that animation, at least I learnt something

[GodsOath_com]

Pterodactyls would have flown in a position similar to pelicans, with long necks folded back so the heavy head would have rested on the shoulders and back. They would not have flown with necks outstretched.

[IndriidaeNT]

Pterosaurs Explained Live is a great watch party. Next you should create a watch party with T. rex The King of Time and Pop Culture, What Did a Baby T. rex Look Like? How Long Did a T. rex Live, Branum Brown the Man who discovered Tyrannosaurus rex and T. rex Skeleton Crew or even a watch party with the Dinosaurs Among Us tralier, Transformation, Are Dinosaurs Still Alive Today?, Etc.

[AlexanderMihajlovich]

Yes, but please, explain where they came from ! Why does no one know this!?!?!

[TragoudistrosMPH]

I didn't know they had a form of hollow bones as well, interesting m

[roop]

where's the evidence that pterosaur wings had aerofoil sections?

[tomellis]

Nice music, pity about the narration getting in the way.

[geekdivaherself]

It glided...an' it's PURPLE an'... an'... OMG DID IT JUST *NOM*?!?

[pineapplehazeclub]

The lower gravity is the main thing isn't it

[djeedjee]

@ min. 1:30 = a bat like wing does not have a section like that. 😶🤨🧐👎🤓

[LimJayhey]

If any of em did survive those are probably what dragons were before being hunted to extinction