Imagine a creature as tall as a giraffe taking to the skies! That’s Quetzalcoatlus, the largest flying animal ever known. This incredible creature soared through the air millions of years ago, and its story is fascinating.
The story of Quetzalcoatlus begins in the 1970s when a graduate student in Texas discovered its fossils. This discovery was a big surprise to the scientific community. When Doug Lawson, the student who found it, announced his discovery, it attracted attention from all over the world. People were amazed by the idea of such a massive flying reptile.
Today, you can see life-size reconstructions of Quetzalcoatlus at places like the Field Museum. But how do scientists create these reconstructions? They start with the real fossils, which are carefully stored in places like the University of Texas at Austin. Although we only have a few bones from Quetzalcoatlus, like part of one wing, scientists use these to piece together the rest of the creature.
To reconstruct Quetzalcoatlus, scientists compare its bones to those of other similar animals. For example, a smaller Quetzalcoatlus found in Big Bend National Park helps fill in the missing parts of the skeleton. By studying these smaller fossils, scientists can scale up the proportions to imagine what the larger creature looked like.
Artists play a crucial role in bringing these ancient creatures to life. They work with scientists to create models and sculptures based on the fossils. For instance, when reconstructing a pterosaur skull, artists use plaster casts of real bones and add clay to fill in the gaps. This collaboration helps us visualize what these creatures might have looked like, including their colors and features.
One big question about Quetzalcoatlus is whether it could actually fly. Scientists have debated this for a long time. Recently, they’ve used a combination of paleontology, aerospace engineering, and computer modeling to explore how these giant reptiles might have taken to the skies. This research helps us understand the physics behind their flight.
The study of Quetzalcoatlus and other prehistoric creatures is an ongoing adventure. With new technologies and discoveries, who knows what we’ll learn in the future? Scientists and artists continue to work together, using their imaginations and skills to uncover the mysteries of the past.
If you’re curious to learn more about paleontology and the wonders of ancient life, check out the documentary series “Prehistoric Road Trip.” It’s a journey through time that explores the fascinating world of fossils and the stories they tell.
Gather materials like clay, cardboard, and paint to create your own model of Quetzalcoatlus. Use the information from the article to guide your design, paying attention to the size and features of this giant flying reptile. This hands-on activity will help you understand the structure and appearance of Quetzalcoatlus.
Imagine you are a paleontologist discovering Quetzalcoatlus fossils for the first time. Create a mock dig site in your classroom or backyard. Use small tools to “excavate” hidden objects, simulating the process of uncovering fossils. This activity will give you insight into the challenges and excitement of fossil discovery.
Explore the science of flight by creating paper airplanes of different sizes and shapes. Test how well they fly and compare your results to what scientists believe about Quetzalcoatlus’s flight capabilities. This experiment will help you understand the principles of aerodynamics and how they apply to large flying creatures.
Partner with a classmate to create a visual representation of Quetzalcoatlus. One of you will focus on the scientific accuracy of the creature’s features, while the other will bring it to life with artistic elements like color and texture. This collaboration will help you appreciate the role of artists in paleontology.
Watch an episode of the documentary series “Prehistoric Road Trip” and take notes on the different prehistoric creatures featured. Discuss with your classmates how these creatures compare to Quetzalcoatlus in terms of size, habitat, and behavior. This activity will expand your knowledge of ancient life and the diversity of prehistoric animals.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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Whoa, Quetzalcoatl is the largest flying creature of all time, about the size of a giraffe! That thing took to the skies, and I have questions. So do I! Let’s go!
I’ve got fossils on my mind because “Prehistoric Road Trip,” the series I’ve been working on for three years, is finally out next week on PBS. There’s more info on that show, including how and when you can tune in, in the links in the video description, so please check that out. We even threw the trailer for the show at the end of this episode, so keep watching for that sneak peek!
But there’s one prehistoric creature we don’t really talk about in the show, and that’s this behemoth. After Quetzalcoatlus went extinct 66 million years ago, there was nothing with a wingspan that vast in the skies until the Wright brothers took their historic flight in 1903. The Field Museum is home to life-size reconstructions, which lets you experience what it must have felt like to stand next to one yourself. However, as with many prehistoric creatures, their anatomy seems unfamiliar and even improbable.
Fossils from this amazing creature were first unearthed by a graduate student in Texas in the 1970s. I want to know how much of the reconstructions of these animals are based on the original fossils and other scientific information, and how much is artistic license. So we came here to the vertebrate paleontology collection at the University of Texas at Austin to get some answers.
You’re just going to have to go over to Joe’s channel to see what adventure he got up to. Meanwhile, I’m off to see Matthew Brown, who is the director of vertebrate paleontology at UT Austin and just the person we need.
The skeleton you saw hanging from the ceiling in the museum is a cast, but the real bones are in these drawers here in this cabinet. These are the real fossils of Quetzalcoatlus. Out of all the bones in the skeleton, we have part of one wing of this giant flying reptile represented by bones in about three drawers here. You only have the bones from one of the arms of the entire thing.
What was the reaction from the scientific community when this graduate student and his collaborators announced they found the largest flying reptile of all time? They were very surprised. When Doug Lawson, the grad student who found it, did a press release, he thought he was going to be speaking in front of a small group of Austin reporters, but there was press from all over the world. It really blew the doors off of what they were expecting.
The reception for this animal has been exciting; it’s one of the more famous fossils in the world. You can find it on postage stamps, in video games, and movies.
So we’re looking at the humerus here, the upper arm bone. This is the ulna, and we have more of the forearm bones in the drawer below. This is one of the bones from the wrist, a carpal bone. If you think about the bones in your wrist, this is massive!
So how is it possible that with just a couple of limb bones from this animal, they’re able to come up with an entire reconstruction of what the whole body would have looked like? To make a reconstruction of an incomplete fossil, we look at other closely related animals that might have more bones. Another somewhat smaller Quetzalcoatlus found at Big Bend National Park fills in most of the missing parts of the skeleton.
If we open the next cabinet, we can see a much more complete but smaller animal. This is the humerus from the wing, about half the size of the large animal. We have a lot more of the wing and many body parts, including skull, neck vertebrae, and even tiny claws preserved in this smaller pterosaur.
They’re able to take the remnants of this skeleton and scale it up to get an idea of what some of the similar proportions would have been. To better understand how artists help paleontologists fill in the missing pieces of incomplete fossils, Matt wanted to show me a pterosaur skull reconstruction in the works.
What we’re looking at here is a reconstruction of the smaller species of Quetzalcoatlus. This skull is a combination of plaster casts of the real bones, and the green part is an in-progress sculpture in clay, making inferences based on what other more complete pterosaur skulls look like. This is a collaboration between scientists and artists to reconstruct these extinct animals from somewhat incomplete material.
Even if you find fragmentary bone, you can look at other fossils and literature, and artists can help flesh out what the rest of this skull would have looked like. The beauty of the museum collection is that we have hundreds of thousands of fossils to compare and fill in those missing gaps. Even when we’re in the field, we pick things up, even fragments, because they help fill in the missing pieces.
It’s amazing that you can build a structure and let your imagination dream up what this creature would have looked like, including its colors or any features used in mating displays. One of the neat things about science is that we’re making predictions about what these missing pieces look like. With new technologies, we can even reconstruct what their skin and feathers were like.
So who knows what we’ll find in another 20 years? What I love is that even with just a couple of bones, you need someone like an artist or sculptor to come in and use this as the skeleton to build a framework of what this might have looked like. When reconstructing these animals, scientists work with artists and engineers, drawing from many different minds to think about the fossils.
We actually have an artist in residence here who looks at fossils almost as portrait subjects, trying to show these creatures in their lives. It takes quite the imagination to look at something like this and come up with a full picture. It puzzled people for a long time, and it took many different groups coming together to tell the story of what these animals were and how they lived.
What a day! The endless number of questions we ask in paleontology is fascinating. If I had come across this, I wouldn’t have looked at it and thought, “giant flying reptiles.”
Matt, thank you so much! It was awesome to finally see this.
So here’s the thing: even though these animals had wings, there was a lot of debate within the scientific community about whether they could actually fly. Recently, researchers have combined paleontology with aerospace engineering and computer modeling to answer that question. If you want to know more about that and the physics behind how these animals took to the skies, make sure you check out the video on Joe’s channel.
Now, enjoy the trailer for my new three-part documentary series about paleontology and deep time, “Prehistoric Road Trip,” which you can catch starting June 17th on your local PBS station, on the PBS app, or stream from anywhere at WTTW.com/prehistoricroadtrip. I have worked on this project for three years, and it has been a personal and scientific journey. I cannot wait for you to see it!
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This version removes any informal language, personal anecdotes, or potentially sensitive content while retaining the core information and context.
Quetzalcoatlus – A genus of pterosaurs known for being one of the largest flying animals of all time. – The Quetzalcoatlus soared through the skies during the late Cretaceous period, showcasing its impressive wingspan.
Fossils – The preserved remains or traces of organisms that lived in the past. – Scientists study fossils to learn about the different species that existed millions of years ago.
Scientists – Individuals who conduct research to increase knowledge in various fields, including biology and paleontology. – Scientists recently discovered a new dinosaur species by analyzing its fossilized bones.
Flight – The act or process of flying through the air, often studied in birds and other flying animals. – The study of flight in birds helps scientists understand how different species have adapted to their environments.
Paleontology – The scientific study of life in the geological past, particularly through the analysis of fossils. – Paleontology provides insights into how ancient creatures lived and evolved over millions of years.
Reptiles – A class of cold-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates that includes snakes, lizards, and turtles. – Reptiles have been around for millions of years, with some species dating back to the age of dinosaurs.
Artists – Individuals who create visual representations, often used in science to illustrate extinct species based on fossil evidence. – Artists work with paleontologists to create accurate depictions of dinosaurs for educational purposes.
Discoveries – New findings or insights, often resulting from scientific research and exploration. – The discoveries of new fossils have provided valuable information about prehistoric ecosystems.
Creatures – Living beings, often used to describe animals, especially those from the past. – Ancient creatures like the woolly mammoth roamed the Earth during the Ice Age.
Reconstruction – The process of recreating the appearance or structure of something, often used in paleontology to visualize extinct species. – The reconstruction of the dinosaur skeleton helped scientists understand its posture and movement.
