Thanks Renfield.
Posted on 08/12/2013 8:30:33 AM PDT by 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....
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Reappraisals of pterosaur trackways and limb joints in the 1980s and 90s finally laid parts of the controversy to rest, confidently demonstrating that pterosaurs walked on four limbs held almost vertically beneath the body. This energy-efficient stance is reminiscent of the limb carriage in most birds and mammals, rather than the sprawled limbs of modern reptiles.
Four legged birds?
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