Azhdarchid pterosaurs are also the largest ever flying vertebrates. Lizards that lives with the dinosaurs had super long necks.
Flying lizards with giraffe-like necks and wing spans up to nearly 40 feet once ruled the skies while dinosaurs roamed below. These impressive albeit bizarre beasts, the azhdarchid pterosaurs, lived from the Late Triassic period until near the end of the Cretaceous period, and are the largest known vertebrates to ever take flight.
“It is unlike anything seen previously in a vertebra of any animal,” paleobiologist and co-author David Martill said in a. “This structure… resolved many concerns about the biomechanics of how these creatures were able to support massive heads—longer than 1.5 meters—on necks longer than the modern-day giraffe, all whilst retaining the ability of powered flight.”
With the help of biomechanical engineers, they then assessed just how helpful the spoke-like structures were for easing the flying reptiles’ neck strain. Their analyses found that just 50 of these struts increased their weight-bearing capacity by 90 percent, which explains how these ancient lizards could be such strong fliers and fierce predators without breaking their own necks.
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