Let's start from the bottom and work our way up. The Archosauria is a diverse group of reptiles which contains two major subsections: crocodiles and their close relatives (collectively called crurotarsans or pseudosuchians) are on one side of the split, and dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and their closest relatives (called avemetatarsalians) on the other. For our purposes here, we're concerned with the second group. Flying lizards once darkened the skies of most continents. Of course, that was during the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous period (from 228 to 65 million years ago). Known as pterosaurs (“flying reptiles”), they were one of three vertebrate groups who learned to take wing, including birds and bats. The earlier species of pterosaurs had long tails and jaws full of teeth. The later species had shorter tails and few, if any teeth. What are Pterosaurs? Henderson, Michael D.; Peterson, Joseph E. (2006). "An azhdarchid pterosaur cervical vertebra from the Hell Creek Formation (Maastrichtian) of southeastern Montana" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 26 (1): 192–195. doi: 10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[192:AAPCVF]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 130751879. a b c d Taquet, P.; Padian, K. (2004). "The earliest known restoration of a pterosaur and the philosophical origins of Cuvier's Ossemens Fossiles". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 3 (2): 157–175. doi: 10.1016/j.crpv.2004.02.002. a b Vidovic, S. U.; Martill, D. M. (2014). " Pterodactylus scolopaciceps Meyer, 1860 (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from the Upper Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany: The Problem of Cryptic Pterosaur Taxa in Early Ontogeny". PLOS ONE. 9 (10): e110646. Bibcode: 2014PLoSO...9k0646V. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110646. PMC 4206445. PMID 25337830.

More recent estimates based on greater knowledge of azhdarchid proportions place its wingspan at 10–11m (33–36ft). [8] Remains found in Texas in 1971 indicate that this pterosaur had a minimum wingspan of about 11m (36ft). [11] Generalized height in a bipedal stance, based on its wingspan, would have been at least 3m (9.8ft) high at the shoulder. [3] Initial classifications for Pterodactylus started when paleontologist Hermann von Meyer used the name Pterodactyli to contain Pterodactylus and other pterosaurs known at the time. This was emended to the family Pterodactylidae by Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1838. However, this group has more recently been given several competing definitions. [4] [47] Other flight capability estimates have disagreed with Henderson's research, suggesting instead an animal superbly adapted to long-range, extended flight. In 2010, Mike Habib, a professor of biomechanics at Chatham University, and Mark Witton, a British paleontologist, undertook further investigation into the claims of flightlessness in large pterosaurs. After factoring wingspan, body weight, and aerodynamics, computer modeling led the two researchers to conclude that Q. northropi was capable of flight up to 130km/h (80mph) for 7 to 10 days at altitudes of 4,600m (15,000ft). Habib further suggested a maximum flight range of 13,000–19,000km (8,000–12,000mi) for Q. northropi. [24] Henderson's work was also further criticized by Witton and Habib in another study, which pointed out that, although Henderson used excellent mass estimations, they were based on outdated pterosaur models, which caused Henderson's mass estimations to be more than double what Habib used in his estimations and that anatomical study of Q. northropi and other big pterosaur forelimbs showed a higher degree of robustness than would be expected if they were purely quadrupedal. [13] This study proposed that large pterosaurs most likely utilized a short burst of powered flight to then transition to thermal soaring. [25] However, a study from 2022 suggests that they would only have flown occasionally and for short distances, like the Kori bustard (the world's heaviest bird that actively flies) and that they were not able to soar at all. [26] No matter how much you like pterodactyls, you’ll want to think twice before telling someone that they’re your favorite dinosaur. Jacobsen, Annie (February 27, 2011). "When Flying Dinosaurs Were Drones". Los Angeles Times Magazine. Archived from the original on March 8, 2013 . Retrieved November 1, 2017.Brougham, Henry P. (1844). "Dialogues on instinct; with analytical view of the researches on fossil osteology". Knight's Weekly Volume for All Readers. 19. Despite their aggression, they seemed to be comfortable with living alongside the smaller Dimorphodon inside The Aviary. [4] Joyce, Walter G. (2003). "A new Late Jurassic turtle specimen and the taxonomy of Palaeomedusa testa and Eurysternum wagleri" (PDF). PaleoBios. 23 (3): 1–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 1, 2015.

One of the largest species of pterosaur was the Quetzalcoatlus northropi, named after the Aztec feathered-serpent god and found in Texas. The Quetzalcoatlus had a wing-span of between eleven and twelve meters or about forty feet. A pterosaur discovered in Mexico had a wingspan of 18 meters or 60 feet. In comparison, the bird with the largest wingspan today is the Wandering Albatross which has a wingspan measuring about 3.15 meters, or about 10 feet. Pterosaur Flight Lehman, Thomas M.; Langston, Wann Jr. (1996). "Habitat and behavior of Quetzalcoatlus: paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Javelina Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Big Bend National Park, Texas". Abstracts of Papers. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 16 (Sup. 3): 48A. doi: 10.1080/02724634.1996.10011371. Oken, Lorenz (1816). Okens Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte. Vol.3. Leipzig: August Schmid und Comp. pp.312–314. a b c d Unwin, D. M. (2003). "On the phylogeny and evolutionary history of pterosaurs". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 217 (1): 139–190. Bibcode: 2003GSLSP.217..139U. doi: 10.1144/GSL.SP.2003.217.01.11. S2CID 86710955. Like humans and apes, pterosaurs and dinosaurs shared a common ancestor that explains the creatures’ resemblance. (Similarly, you could no more accurately call a pterosaur a dinosaur than you could call a human an ape.) Both pterosaurs and dinosaurs were part of the clade Avemetatarsalia within the subclass Archosauria, the latter of which includes both the close relatives of crocodiles and the close relatives of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Within Avemetatarsalia, though, there is a clear line of division: dinosaurs and their close relatives are on one side, within Dinosauromorpha, and pterosaurs are on the other. And while modern birds claim dinosaurs as their ancestors, no pterosaur descendant avoided extinction.Pterodactylus (from Greek pterodáktylos ( πτεροδάκτυλος) meaning 'winged finger' [2]) is an extinct genus of pterosaurs. It is thought to contain only a single species, Pterodactylus antiquus, which was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile and one of the first prehistoric reptiles to ever be discovered.

Brandalise de Andrade, Marco; Young, Mark T. (2008). "High diversity of thalattosuchian crocodylians and the niche partition in the Solnhofen Sea". The 56th Symposium of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy: 14–15. Archived from the original on June 3, 2011. a b c d Vidovic, Steven U.; Martill, David M. (2017). "The taxonomy and phylogeny of Diopecephalus kochi (Wagner, 1837) and "Germanodactylus rhamphastinus" (Wagner, 1851)" (PDF). Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 455 (1): 125–147. Bibcode: 2018GSLSP.455..125V. doi: 10.1144/SP455.12. S2CID 219204038. von Meyer, Hermann (1846). "Pterodactylus (Rhamphorhynchus) gemmingi aus dem Kalkschiefer von Solenhofen". Palaeontographica. Cassel (published 1851). 1: 1–20.a b Schweigert, G. (2007). "Ammonite biostratigraphy as a tool for dating Upper Jurassic lithographic limestones from South Germany – first results and open questions" (PDF). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen. 245 (1): 117–125. doi: 10.1127/0077-7749/2007/0245-0117. Pteranodon, (genus Pteranodon), flying reptile ( pterosaur) found as fossils in North American deposits dating from about 90 million to 100 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period. Pteranodon had a wingspan of 7 metres (23 feet) or more, and its toothless jaws were very long and pelican-like. Hoffstetter, R. (1966). "A propos des genres Ardeosaurus et Eichstaettisaurus (Reptilia, Sauria, Gekkonoidea) du Jurassique Supèrieur de Franconie"[On the genera Ardeosaurus and Eichstaettisaurus (Reptilia, Sauria, Gekkonoidea) from the Upper Jurassic of France]. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 8 (4): 592–595. doi: 10.2113/gssgfbull.S7-VIII.4.592. The main facts to remember are that Pterodactylus was not a dinosaur, and that not all Pterosaurs are Pterodactyls! More Dinosaur Articles at Active Wild

Paul, Gregory S. (2002). Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of Flight in Dinosaurs and Birds. Johns Hopkins University Press. p.472. ISBN 0-8018-6763-0. Witton, Mark (2013). Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15061-1.The first Pterodactyl fossil was identified by Italian scientist Cosimo Alessandro Collini in 1784. It was also the first pterosaur specimen to have been found. Pterodactylus lived around 150.8–148.5 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic epoch. (The Late Jurassic was the third epoch of the Jurassic Period.)