Posted on 06/14/2019 8:58:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Previously, pterodactyls were thought to only be able to take to the air once they had grown to almost full size, just like birds or bats. This assumption was based on fossilised embryos of the creatures found in China that had poorly developed wings...
Another fundamental difference between baby pterodactyls, also known as flaplings, and baby birds or bats, is that they had no parental care and had to feed and look after themselves from birth. Their ability to fly gave them a lifesaving survival mechanism which they used to evade carnivorous dinosaurs. This ability also proved to be one of their biggest killers, as the demanding and dangerous process of flight led to many of them dying at a very early age.
The research has also challenged the current view that pterodactyls behaved in a similar way to birds and bats and has provided possible answers to some key questions surrounding these animals. Since flaplings were able to both fly and grow from birth, this provides a possible explanation as to why they were able to reach enormous wingspans, far larger than any historic or current species of bird or bat. How they were able to carry out this process will require further research, but it is a question that wouldn't have been posed without these recent developments in our understanding.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
To avoid late term abortion?
That much is obvious.
:^)
Or some old one-eyed witch/seahag/potion-brewer standing over a bubbling cauldron... while staring at a picture of Trump...
Damn... I just described half the DNC, didn’t I???
He would have, but he was having too much of a blast making the animals row the Ark really fast while he waterskied.
I would think so. A lot of “ modern “ birds are precocious, but feathered. Bat- like wings should provide good capability for gliding. Making the connections in the brain tales some tine, though. When I was raising kittens. I was amazed at the speed that they could run. Took ‘em a wjile to not run into things, though.
The remake is coming out, "1,000,053 B.C."
“Abandoned from birth”. That I doubt. Most animals more advanced than amoeba will need help learning how to forage and feed themselves, even if just for a short time.
They need to be protected from immediately becoming dinner for other animals. Think of the baby turtles who never quite make it into the water before a Seagull swoops down for a snack.
Lol!
Makes me wonder why they did not survive to modern times........................
Racquel...
My God.. the mammari... err, the memories...
I see what you did there....................
Nobody wears an animal-hide bikini like Racquel...
NOBODY!!!!
Good lord-a-mighty... (Ok.. I’m all right now...whew)...
66 million years ago an asteroid roughly 15 kilometers (9 miles) wide hurtled into Chicxulub, Mexico. That probably killed off any dinos.
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