You know, I’ve been having this funny idea that perhaps bones, during fossilisation, mineral absorption probably causes the distortion of the sizes of the bones, to greatly exaggerated forms.
For example, those ancient dragon-fly fossils with metre-wide wingspans, don’t seem too practical to be able to fly on membranous wings, leave alone the chances that they might break like twigs, when flapped.
What do you think?
That might work for the recently deceased, or still living, in transitory medium such as snow; distortion of (for example) footprint castings is sometimes cited or claimed. I don’t think it’s the case with meter-wide dragonflies though. :’)
Think also about paper airplanes, hand-folded, and ready to glide. No wing-snapping there. Now imagine a wing surface 20 to 30 times larger, stiffer and stronger than paper, carrying something that weighs perhaps 4 to 8 oz. The biggest threat would be predators, not least spiders and their webs.