Why pterosaurs weren't so scary after all

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 8-10-2013 | Mark Witton

[Renfield]

For most of us, "pterodactyls" are imagined as large, vicious and ugly gargoyles with lanky limbs, leathery wings and jaws lined with savage teeth, the sort of disreputable brutes we find in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, the Jurassic Park franchise – even a recent episode of Doctor Who. Such works suggest we should think ourselves lucky that these flying reptiles – some of which measured 10 metres across the wings and stood as tall as giraffes – were confined to landscapes populated by equally terrible dinosaurs, marine reptiles and turbulent volcanoes during a time known as the Mesozoic era (250m-65m years ago) and that they aren't alive today to menace mankind. Of course, the popular understanding of these fossil animals and their world is only a distant echo of reality, a construct of poor scientific communication, melodramatic media and romantic storytellers....

[Renfield]

"...Pterosaurs were probably as hyperactive and energetic as modern birds and mammals, and nothing like the slow, laboured gliders they were once thought to be. Far from being scary, scaly beasts, pterosaurs would have been warm, soft to the touch and eminently strokable. Pet stores would be lining up to sell smaller pterosaur species – some with wingspans of under 50cm – if they were still around today...."

[Renfield]

Ping

[kenavi]

I’m just grateful that cows don’t fly!

[KarlInOhio]

And they could be used as record player needles.

[Born to Conserve]

They had teeth. Birds don’t have teeth.

[cripplecreek]

Its a living.

[UCANSEE2]

Wow. Thanks for the article and link.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

That why the phrase, “As rare as hen’s teeth.”

[Billthedrill]

Judging by what I found on my freshly-washed car this weekend, they are still around.

[Charles Martel]

Far from being scary, scaly beasts, pterosaurs would have been warm, soft to the touch and eminently strokable.

The critters sound downright cuddly...

[JoeProBono]

[Mr. K]

its a MAGICAL liopleurodon...

[JoeProBono]

[jmcenanly]

A pet roc.

[Cold Heart]

We have a lot of great blue heron rookeries in the woods where we ride horses. Their loud, deep throated ork sounds and low flight over head remind me of the pterosaurs.

[thackney]

From the article:

We now know of more than 130 pterosaur species sporting all manner of bizarre jaws and teeth (or no teeth at all, in several lineages),

[GraceG]

Obligatory 6kyo dim bulb post:

If they were so cuddly why didn’t Noah let them on the ark?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Goblins are scary!

[hattend]

They had photoshop back in the 1800s?

[Mike Darancette]

Imagine what the big ones could do.