Quetzalcoatlus
Name: Quetzalcoatlus
(from Quetzalcoatl).
Phonetic: Kwet-zal-co-at-las.
Named By: Douglas A. Lawson - 1975.
Classification: Chordata, Vertebrata,
Tetrapoda, Amniota, Reptilia, Diapsida, Archosauria,
Avemetatarsalia, Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidia, Azhdarchidae.
Species: Q. northropi.
Type: Carnivore.
Size: 11 meter wingspan.
Known locations: U.S.A., Texas, Javelina
Formation, Big Bend National Park.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Two specimens, one
considerably smaller.
Named
after
the ‘feathered serpent’ god of Mesoamerica, Quetzalcoatlus
has
really soared to the top among popular pterosaurs. When first
discovered it was thought to have had a fifteen meter wingspan but
further studies have reduced this estimate to eleven meters, although
that’s still huge for a pterosaur. Another revision was the beak in
that it has been learned that it terminated in a sharp point as opposed
to the original blunt edge.
How
Quetzalcoatlus fed is
open to much debate. Initially it was thought to be a scavenger,
but the beak is not suited to the task of stripping flesh from a
carcass as the beak did not close completely. The replacement
hypothesis was that it skimmed across bodies of water, snatching fish
out of the water with its beak as it flew overhead. Although
plausible, when the theory was applied to a creature the size of
Quetzalcoatlus it was found that it would be too far
too much energy
expenditure for it to be a viable method of feeding.
A
more likely scenario
accepted now is that Quetzalcoatlus had a lifestyle
similar to that of
a stork, perhaps stalking small prey items like lizards and mammals
in vegetative growth on the ground, or sitting at the edges of
streams and rivers snatching fish and amphibians as they swam by.
Such feeding strategies would require very little energy expenditure,
making it easier for Quetzalcoatlus to maintain
the calorie intake
to fuel its body.
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