Baby pterodactyls could fly from birth

[Sanguine]

News Release 12-Jun-2019

New discovery shows extinct flying reptile had the remarkable ability to fly from birth

University of Leicester

A breakthrough discovery has found that pterodactyls, extinct flying reptiles also known as pterosaurs, had a remarkable ability - they could fly from birth. This discovery's importance is highlighted by the fact that no other living vertebrates today, or in the history of life as we know it, have been able to replicate this. This revelation has a profound impact on our understanding of how pterodactyls lived, which is critical to understanding how the dinosaur world worked as a whole.

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.

However, Dr David Unwin, a University of Leicester palaeobiologist who specialises in the study of pterodactyls and Dr Charles Deeming, a University of Lincoln zoologist who researches avian and reptilian reproduction, were able to disprove this hypothesis. They compared these embryos with data on prenatal growth in birds and crocodiles, finding that they were still at an early stage of development and a long way from hatching. The discovery of more advanced embryos in China and Argentina that died just before they hatched provided the evidence that pterodactyls had the ability to fly from birth. Dr David Unwin said: "Theoretically what pterosaurs did, growing and flying, is impossible, but they didn't know this, so they did it anyway."...

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/uol-bpc061219.php