Quetzalcoatlus, with its 40-foot wingspan, is undoubtedly probably the most extraordinary animals to have ever lived. The creature was able to flight, however the way it managed to launch itself into the air has remained a thriller—till now.

I typically surprise concerning the unique types of life which may exist on distant planets, however all I’ve to do is look into our personal world’s previous. We’ve had our justifiable share of freaky creatures, with Quetzalcoatlus simply cracking the higher echelons of this record. Living 70 million years in the past through the Cretaceous, this gigantic pterosaur—with wings spanning 33 to 40 toes (10 to 12 meters) in size—is the most important flying animal to have ever lived.

Paleontologists first realized about Quetzalcoatlus within the early Nineteen Seventies, however we nonetheless know remarkably little about these outsized fliers, together with how they managed to take off. A monograph of 5 papers, all revealed within the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, is welcome information, offering essentially the most complete research of Quetzalcoatlus so far.

“To say that this work is long awaited is something of an understatement,” Darren Naish, a pterosaur knowledgeable who wasn’t concerned within the new analysis, stated in a University of Texas press release. “The good news is that it very much delivers…[as never] before has so much detailed information on azhdarchids (the pterosaur family that includes Quetzalcoatlus) been gathered in the same place, this meaning that the work will serve as the standard go-to study of this group for years—probably decades—to come.”

Topics within the monograph embody the discovery and distribution of the species, their habitat, physical characteristics and taxonomy, an up to date evolutionary family tree, and an evaluation of their functional morphology, by which scientists “reconstruct the proportions and possible motions of the skeleton of the giant azhdarchid pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus.”

To date, all identified and suspected Quetzalcoatlus fossils have been discovered at Big Bend National Park in Texas, they usually’re all saved on the University of Texas at Austin’s Vertebrate Paleontology Collections on the Jackson School of Geosciences. A complete assessment of those historical bones made the brand new research doable.

Going into the brand new analysis, scientists had recognized one species, often called Quetzalcoatlus northropi. Smaller bones had been attributed to juveniles, however this seems to have been a mistake. As the brand new analysis reveals, these smaller bones belonged to 2 beforehand unknown pterosaur species, Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni and Wellnhopterus brevirostri. The former, solely the second Quetzalcoatlus to ever be found, was named in honor of Douglas Lawson (the paleontologist who first found these creatures), and it featured a wingspan between 18 and 20 toes (5.6 – 6 meters).

Pterosaurs, whether or not giant or small, “have huge breastbones, which is where the flight muscles attach, so there is no doubt that they were terrific flyers,” Kevin Padian, an emeritus professor on the University of California, Berkeley, and a co-author of the practical morphology research, stated within the University of Texas launch. Figuring out how Quetzalcoatlus took off, nevertheless, has confirmed tough, as only some dozen bones of the bigger species, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, have ever been found. But as a result of a whole lot of bones exist for the smaller model, the staff was in a position to create a partial reconstruction, permitting them to make inferences concerning the bigger one.

Previous theories steered Quetzalcoatlus rocked ahead like a bat to realize flight, or that it constructed up pace like an albatross, working and frantically flapping its wings to get airborne. The new analysis suggests Quetzalcoatlus achieved flight via a distinct means, specifically by crouching after which leaping some 8 toes (2.4 meters) into the air. Clear of the floor, Quetzalcoatlus then proceeded to flap its wings.

The scientists additionally studied the geological context of Big Bend, which featured an enormous evergreen forest through the Cretaceous. The bigger Quetzalcoatlus, based on the researchers, had a life-style much like that of contemporary herons, selecting to hunt alone in rivers and streams. (To be clear, pterosaurs weren’t birds, nor did fashionable birds evolve from pterosaurs.) The scientists suspect a extra social life-style for Q. lawsoni, provided that their bones had been discovered clumped collectively.

Quetzalcoatlus, the brand new research present, had been seemingly probers and never skimmers. Using their lengthy toothless beaks, the creatures picked off crabs, clams, and worms lurking on the backside of rivers and lakes.

These new research are superb, however there’s nonetheless a lot we don’t learn about Quetzalcoatlus, such because the extent of their weight-reduction plan, how they walked, and the way they managed to keep away from predators. It’s laborious to think about the terrifyingly big predator that might take down a large pterosaur, however that is the Cretaceous we’re speaking about. The new work represents an essential subsequent step as scientists search to study extra about these outstanding, seemingly alien animals.

More: Meet the ‘Cold Dragon of the North Winds,’ a Gigantic Canadian Pterosaur.