What is a Pterosaur?

Most of you have probably heard about the so-called "pterodactyls," the flying creatures that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. Like most of us, you might not know exactly what a pterodactyl, more properly known as a pterosaur, is. Is it a bird? A bat? A dinosaur? Possibly even an insect? Or a distinct group of archosaurs that are thought to be fairly closely related to both dinosaurs and crocodilians, but scientists still aren't 100% positive how they fit into the reptilian family tree? Well, if you were thinking the last option, then lo and behold: you're right! Although the pterodactyls would have soared through the skies much like birds, bats, and even some insects of today, they would have been a distinct group altogether. They are also not quite dinosaurs: as the last option says, no one knows quite yet how exactly they fit in!

Pyg perches next to the skeleton of one of the most famous pterosaurs, Pteranodon, at the Morrison Natural History Museum in Colorado!  

Another misconception you might be suffering under is what these extinct flying reptiles are actually called. Although most people call them pterodactyls, that isn't quite the correct term for them. Scientifically, these creatures are known as the pterosaurs. The name pterodactyls actually originates from a small pterosaur that is commonly found in the fine-grained Solnhofen fossil beds in Germany. Known as Pterodactylus, several hundred of these little reptiles have been discovered!

Pyg checks out a cast of one of the more famous Pterodactylus specimens from Solnhofen!

The Solnhofen quarries are world renknowed for their excellent fossils. Not only have a large number of Pterodactylus specimens been uncovered there, but it was from these quarries that the very first Archaeopteryx was uncovered in 1861.  This primitive bird is one of the missing links between birds and dinosaurs, as it shares many features in common with both groups (such as feathers with birds and hand claws and teeth with dinosaurs). Other famous and important animals to come out of the Solnhofen Quarries include numerous crustaceans, insects, and even a small crocodile called Alligatorellus!

Pyg learns more about both the Pterodactylus specimen from above (left), but also about Archaeopteryx (right)!  This cast is of the best specimen of this primitive bird, and was discovered in 1877!  (The original specimen was, not the cast).

Part of the reason why the Solnhofen Quarry is so darn special is the extremely fine-detail preserved in the fossils. As I just mentioned in the previous paragraph, feathers have been discovered with Archaeopteryx specimens. Feathers, much like skin, hair, and other soft-tissues, rarely fossilize. As the science of paleontology slowly evolves, just like the animals it studies, paleontologists become better and better equipped to deal with, not to mention find, these soft-tissue elements of these extinct animals. More and more dinosaurs are being discovered with not only skin, but oftentimes feathers, such as Microraptor, an animal fairly closely related to Velociraptor of Jurassic Park fame; Dilong, an ancient ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex; and the bizarre therizinosaurs; amongst many others.

And it's not just feathers that fossilize, either. Wing membranes, composed of a flap of skin, are being discovered more and more frequently when it comes to pterosaurs. When it comes to Pterodactylus, scientists have such a large sample size that they are able to reconstruct much of the soft-tissue anatomy of this particular pterosaur! Scientists also have a very thorough growth series for this particular pterosaur, with individuals ranging from hatchlings, just a few days to a few weeks old, all the way to very old individuals with wingspans of around five feet, which, for a Pterodactylus, is very hefty indeed!

Although we've talked a lot about Pterodactylus, there are many other fascinating pterosaurs! I've taken a recent interest in pterosaurs, but before we dive on in to a wide variety of posts, I wanted to provide a brief introduction! Remember, this is a VERY brief introduction. For a more thorough introduction to pterosaurs, consult a book or something, or check back in the future as we learn more about pterosaurs! Don't hold me to it, but I feel like sometime in the near future, I will be talking about Dimorphodon and the anurognathids! Check back soon!

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Alphabet Animals: The Letter Q (Extinct)

In our last post, we looked at some extant, or still living (as opposed to extinct) animals whose name begins with the letter "Q."  Today, we are going to look at a few more of these animals, but this time we are going to be looking at some of those extinct animals!  Let's go, team!

1.  Quetzalcoatlus - One of the largest flying animals of all time, Quetzalcoatlus is not a dinosaur like it is often thought to be.  Instead, Quetzalcoatlus is a memeber of a distinct group of archosaurs (a large groups of reptiles that includes crocodilians and dinosaurs) called the pterosaurs.  Quetzalcoatlus lived in the Late Cretaceous Period of North America, between around 68-65 MYA.

2.  Qantassaurus - A small Australian ornithopod, Qantassaurus was named by paleontologist-couple Patricia Vickers-Rich and Tom Rich after the Australian airline Qantas.  Qantassaurus lived about 115 MYA, when Australia was still a little south of the Antarctic Circle!

3.  Qiaowanlong - A sauropod dinosaur from Yujinzi Basin of Gansu, China, Qiaowanlong was first discovered in 2007, and lived about 100 MYA in the Early Cretaceous Period.

4.  Quagga - An extinct subspecies of the plains zebra, the quagga was once found in the Karoo of South Africa, and was the first extinct creature to have its DNA studied by scientists.  The quagga was actually hunted to extinction by humans: the last wild one is thought to have been shot in the late 1870s, while the last specimen ever known to have existed died on August 12, 1883 at a zoo in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

5. Qingxiusaurus - Described in 2008, Qingxiusaurus is yet another sauropod dinosaur whose name begins with a "Q."  Like Qiaowanlong, Qingxiusaurus was also found in China.  Qingxiusaurus lived much later than Qiaowanlong, however, in the Late Cretaceous Period.

6.  Qiupalong - An ornithomimosaur, or ostrich dinosaur, Qiupalong lived during the Late Cretaceous Period of China, and is the first ornithomimosaur that is definitively known from outside the Gobi Desert in Asia.

7.  Quaesitosaurus - With a name meaning "extraordinary lizard," Quaesitosaurus lived between around 85 and 70 MYA in Mongolia.  It was first discovered in 1983, and its skull was likened to that of a horse.

8.  Quilmesaurus - Native to Argentina during the Late Cretaceous Period, not a lot is known about Quilmesaurus.  It is estimated to have been between around 16 - 20 feet long.

9.  Qinlingosaurus - Yet another Late Cretaceous Asian sauropod, Qinlingosaurus was named after the Qinling Mountains of China in 1996.  

Hey There Mass Extinction (to the tune of "Hey There Delilah")

What comes after seven?  Well, if you subscribe to a linear view of time, then generally eight!  So here is my eighth song!  And let me tell you, she is an absolute DOOZY!  Say hello to "Hey There Mass Extinction," to the tune of "Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's!  Below is the link to the song:

Here are the lyrics to the song:


Hey there mass extinction, what's it like to have no pity
I'm a thousand miles away
But still the light it is so pretty, yes it's true
But it'll boil the flesh off me and you, I swear its true

Hey there mass extinction don't you worry about the distance
The sonic boom will be here shortly, burst your eardrums, you can't listen
Close your eyes
If you open them again, they'll probably fry
You'll surely die

Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Fractured ecosystems

Hey there mass extinction
I know times are getting hard
The sun is covered by a lot of dust
And seems so very far
Away, not good
I can't survive on simply wood
But no one could

Hey there mass extinction
I think hunger's here to stay
Death is coming soon for me and you
It'll take our breath away
And down we'll fall
Mosasaurs, pterosaurs, dinosaurs, all
We just can't stall

Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Fractured ecosystems

A thousand miles seems pretty far
But the entire planet it will mar
Earthquakes will cause the entire Earth to sway
Evolution this event will suppress
And yet something must survive because
We know
That you are hearing my angel's voice today

Mass extinction I can promise you
The outlook now is bleak its true
The world will never ever be the same
And you're to blame

Hey there mass extinction
You've destroyed my family tree
Temporarily weakened the genetic pool
And now the dinos are history, sad but true
You know its all because of you
Mammalian radiation will ensue
Hey mass extinction here's to you
This one's for you

Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Oh fractured ecosystems
Fractured ecosystems

Are you diggin' the songs?  Well, then check out our playlist below!

CLICK HERE TO BE DIRECTED TO A FUN-FILLED PLAYLIST OF AMAZING SONGS.

Museum Spotlight: Fernbank Museum of Natural History

In 2006, my family and I went down to Georgia (we were lookin' for a soul to steal) to visit our really good friends the Guinees (we were way behind, and we were willing to make a deal).  On our trip, we visited what is now one of my most favorite museums of all time: the Fernbank Museum of Natural History.  While Fernbank certainly has a large number of really cool exhibits, easily my favorite one was the one around which most of the museum is built: an enormous room with a Giganotosaurus attacking an Argentinosaurus, one of the largest theropod dinosaurs known to science attacking one of the largest sauropod dinosaurs known to science.  It was simply fantastic!  In the upper levels of the atrium thing, you could also see fossil skeletons of various pterosaurs, and there was also a fossil crocodile on the ground floor!  Fantastic!

 

 

 

Another thing that I thought was really cool was a large, life-size statue of Stegosaurus outside of the museum!  Below is a picture of my sister and I acting like dinosaur in front of it!

 All of the photos in this post were taken by Julie Neher.

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Top Ten Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 4)

Part four of my Top Ten Favorite Dinosaurs list.  Enjoy!

2. Struthiosaurus

Just like Masiakasaurus, Struthiosaurus also lived during the Late Cretaceous Period.  Also like Masiakasaurus, Struthiosaurus was small.  But Struthiosaurus was small in a very different way than Masiakasaurus.  Remember when we talked about island/insular dwarfism in the context of the Channel Island fox?  Well, island dwarfism is back, in all of its glory!  A brief refresher, island dwarfism is what sometimes happens to animals that have become trapped on islands.  Over many generations, they shrink in order to match the limited food supply.  If there is a limited supply of food, then the smallest of your species, not the largest, are much more likely to survive.  Another factor that often helps island dwarfs is that predation is typically not as intense on islands as compared to mainlands, but that is not always the case.  Anyways, around 75 MYA, global sea levels were much higher.  In North America, we had the Western Interior Seaway dividing the continent, while Europe was simply reduced to a number of individual islands, one of which is now known as Hațeg Island.  And, if you are any good at guessing how stories end, you can probably see where this is going.  Yes, Struthiosaurus was an island-dwarf!  He is also really cool because he is an ankylosaur, a group of dinosaurs that are incredibly interesting!  Another thing that I absolutely have to mention here pertains to the picture of Struthiosaurus that we have below.  This picture was drawn by an incredibly talented young artist named Sam Lippincott.  Only in eighth grade, he is well on his way to achieving artistic greatness!  Below are some more pictures of his, all of them absolutely fantastic!  He made these pictures for my last lecture and I have the Struthiosaurus and Magyarosaurus pictures framed on my wall, I love them so much!  Let's all give Sam a round of applause! 

Struthiosaurus, an ankylosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Telmatosaurus, a hadrosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Magyarosaurus, a sauropod, by Sam Lippincott

Hatzegopteryx, a pterosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Europasaurus, another dwarf sauropod dinosaur, but from an island other than Hațeg Island

TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART 5

Proterosuchus....or Should I Say "Broterosuchus?"

Before we learn about Proterosuchus, it will be helpful to discuss where this creature comes from.  Proterosuchus is an archosaur, and to understand what an archosaur is, we must first travel back 320 million years into Earth's history: back....to the middle of the Carboniferous Period.  To travel back to that period of Earth's history, click HERE TO SEE A POST I JUST MADE ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMALS THAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW.  Unless, of course, you are fine with just accepting the idea that the archosaurs are relatives of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians, in which case you can just skip that post.  I think it's interesting, though, so it might be worth checking out!

Well, that was confusing.  So how does all of this evolutionary rig-a-ma-roll pertain to Proterosuchus?  Well, in his excellent book entitled "Gorgon," paleontologist Peter D. Ward actually talks about that.  Here is that passage from his book:

"During the Triassic a whole new suite of vertebrates populated the land.  The oldest true "ruling reptiles," the stock that would ultimately give rise to the dinosaurs, are found in the oldest rocks of the Triassic.  The most ancient of these is Proterosuchus.  Yet within several million years, there was a variety of these predinosaurs, belonging to a group known as the archosaurs.  From these ancestral stocks the successful lines of crocodiles and crocodile-like animals known as phytosaurs evolved.  From other members of this group came lizards, snakes, and, by the middle of the Triassic, the first true dinosaurs."  

Well, that certainly sums it up quite nicely, don't you think!  Anyways, Proterosuchus was around the size of the extant Komodo dragon, and was one of the largest reptiles alive during its time, in the Early Triassic Period.  Similar in appearance to the modern day crocodiles, it has been theorized that this animal would lie in wait much like the crocodilians, ambushing its prey when it came down to bodies of water to drink.  One bit of evidence that causes some scientists to believe that Proterosuchus hunted like the crocodilians was that the eyes of Proterosuchus were were located on top of its head, again like the crocodilians.

Remains of Proterosuchus are known from both China and South Africa, where it was first discovered by Robert Broom, a famous South African paleontologist, in 1903.  This specimen was discovered in the Karoo Basin, an enormous desert in South Africa where large numbers of fossils have been discovered. 

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The Archosaurs: A Brief Summary of Reptilian Evolution

320 million years ago, during the Carboniferous Period, the flora and fauna looked quite different than it does today.  Oxygen levels in the atmosphere were much higher, allowing insects to grow to enormous sizes.  Centipedes were the size of snowboards; dragonflies were the size of hawks; and spiders were the size of dinner plates.  There were also no mammals.  Not only that, but there were no reptiles, no dinosaurs, and no birds (which, of course, are dinosaurs).  There were, however, amphibians.  Amphibians, like frogs and salamanders, cannot lay their eggs on dry land, and instead must lay them in pools of water.  This is because the eggs that they lay, unlike those laid by dinosaurs, birds, reptiles, and monotremes (the two egg-laying mammals), have soft-shelled eggs, which allows water to move in and out of them.  They would simply dry up on land!

Around 320 MYA, however, something changed.  Some of these amphibians developed what is known as an "amniotic egg," the type of egg typified by the dinosaurs, birds, reptiles and monotremes.

Around 5 million years after that, around 315 MYA, another major split occurred, this time between the amniotes.  This split resulted in two lineages, the first of which, the synapsids, would one day become the mammals.  The second of these two lineages was the sauropsids.   Within the sauropsids was the group known as the archosaurs.  The archosaurs, in turn, suffered two major splits.  The first split was the crocodiles, alligators and their kin.  They joined with the rest of the reptiles contained within the sauropsids.  The second large split within the archosaurs was another large group, off of which the pterosaurs broke off, before the rest of the group became dinosaurs (and, in turn, birds).  If you look at the family tree below, you can see that the group known collectively as the "reptiles" is what is referred to as a "paraphyletic group."  Put simply, that means that a paraphyletic group consists of "all the descendants of the last common ancestor of the group's members minus a small number of monophyletic groups of descendants, typically just one or two such groups." So for reptiles, that means that the group consists of the last common ancestor of all reptiles (which includes both extant reptiles and the extinct mammal-like reptiles, the precursors of the mammals), including all of the descendants of that ancestor....EXCEPT for the mammals and the birds, which are defined separately.  I feel like I have confused you enough, so I am not even going to get into the whole dinosaur debate.

The Denver Gem and Mineral Show Part 2: The Piscivores (Excepting Penguins)

As we started talking about a few weeks ago, my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I were able to visit the Denver Gem and Mineral Show at the Denver Merchandise Mart.  Last time, we talked about the giant ammonites, the baby eryops that Dr. Robert Bakker was working on, the gliding Indonesian lizards of the genus Draco and the pterosaurs that evolved from creatures purportedly much like this millions of years ago.  Today, we are going to talk about all of the piscivorous animals that we saw there, except for the fossil penguin that I saw there.  Knowing me, that would easily take up one whole post of its own there.  Keep in mind throughout this post that I'm not certain for all of these animals that they actually eat fish, I just know that the large groups that they belong to often eat fish.  Today, we are going to be looking at the mosasaurs, crocodilians, pterosaurs, sea lions, other fish, sharks, and the dreaded piscivorous dinosaur Spinosaurus.  

MESSAGE FROM ZACK FROM THE FUTURE:  Hello, everyone.  This is Zack Neher.  I have travelled to this post from the future.  I wanted to give you a link to the Homebase for these posts.  I am like Rose Tyler, leaving clues in the form of Bad Wolf.  Except this is not quite like that at all really.  Anyways.  The Homebase for the series is HERE.

Myself next to a gigantic mosasaur skull

I am pretty sure that this is the skull of a mosasaur , anyway.....it looks more like a mosasaur skull than the skull of a crocodilian, if you ask me

A mosasaur jaw, from Morocco by the looks of it

A mosasaur skull (Platecarpus, if memory serves, but it is entirely possible that I am wildly off) in front of a fossil ray

Another huge mosasaur skull

We also got to see the teeth of a piscivorous pterosaur.  The teeth of a piscivore are usually different from those of other carnivorous animals due to their conical shape.  The teeth of the fish eaters, like those of crocodilians and dolphins, are usually conical in shape, to prevent prey from struggling out of their grasp.

The teeth of a piscivorous pterosaurs

Below are the skulls of various crocodilians.

 

 

The skulls of these dudes seem like they should be out of a cartoon or something, they are so weird and comic looking!

Here are a pair of photos of fossilized sea lion teeth, both from the extinct sea lion Imagotaria sp., from the Miocene to Pliocene in the Atacama region of Chile.

Imagotaria sp., from the Miocene to Pliocene in the Atacama region of Chile

Imagotaria sp., from the Miocene to Pliocene in the Atacama region of Chile

Next, a picture of a pair of fossil jellyfish!

Fossil jellyfish!

Next are the teeth of the gigantic, fifty to sixty foot long carnivorous (or actually, piscivorous) dinosaur: Spinosaurus.  Also in the picture are the teeth of another enormous carnivorous dinosaur that lived in the same area of Northern Africa as Spinosaurus at this time of the Cretaceous Period: Carcharodontosaurus, who was not a piscivore, at least not primarily a piscivore, like a penguin, or as Spinosaurus is purported to
be.  (Did you see that alliteration?  My language arts teacher would be most impressed).  I discuss both Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus in two previous posts, which you can look at HERE FOR SPINOSAURUS and HERE FOR SPINOSAURUS AND CARCHARODONTOSAURUS.

The teeth of Spinosaurus.  Actually in this shot, it looks as if most or all of these teeth belong to Spinosaurus.

And now for some pictures of the teeth of Megalodon, the largest shark that is ever known to have lived!  I have talked about Megalodon in the past, click HERE to learn more.

 

Now for some random ones.

It's a fish eat fish world out there

A pair of shark jaws.  I am not certain as I don't remember at all and they are unlabeled, but I believe them to be jaws of sand tiger sharks.  Again, I could be totally off on this!

The Denver Gem and Mineral Show Part 1: Giant Ammonites, Burrowing Amphibians and Leaping Lizards

On Sunday, the 16th, my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I visited the Denver Gem and Mineral Show at the Denver Merchandise Mart.  It was a ton of fun!  They had booths from all over the place, like the Morrison Natural History Museum and the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center, an excellent dinosaur museum up in Woodland Park near Colorado Springs!  One of the most exciting things by far was when a pair of women came up to us, and asked if they could film us just going about our business.  They were part of a group making a movie under the working title "Quarry."  It's apparently going to be about American Paleontology, and it looks like Masaki and I may have made the part about why Americans love paleontology, and especially dinosaurs, so much!

MESSAGE FROM ZACK FROM THE FUTURE:  Hello, everyone.  This is Zack Neher.  I have travelled to this post from the future.  I wanted to give you a link to the Homebase for these posts.  I am like Rose Tyler, leaving clues in the form of Bad Wolf.  Except this is not quite like that at all really.  Anyways.  The Homebase for the series is HERE.

Creeper shot of the film crew following us, with a large iridescent ammonite in the foreground.  Notice the distinct chambers.  How magnificent.

We also saw Dr. Robert Bakker there.  After I said hello, he waved me over and said "You're a smart kid.  Can you tell me where the nostrils are on this thing?"  The "thing" that he was referring to was a baby Eryops skeleton that he has been working on, a Permian amphibian that lived in the south eastern United States.  Remains have been discovered in both Texas and New Mexico, and it was a contemporary of Dimetrodon, who most likely preyed upon it.  Upon my examination, I promptly tried to prove his assessment of my intelligence wrong, as I pointed all over the skull in my attempts to locate the nostrils.  Turns out, the nostrils were right where they should be.  They were just confusing because in life, the animal would have been able to cover the nostrils with little flaps of bone, sealing off the nostrils from dirt and such while it was burrowing.  Pretty interesting stuff!

Dr. Bakker's baby Eryops.  The snout is facing the pen in the left of the image, and the two holes that you can see are the orbitals, or the eye sockets.  The googly eyes are explained below.

Another picture from a few weeks ago.  This was taken at the Morrison Museum when my friend Kristie Chua came up to visit.  Dr. Bakker, when asked "Why the googly eyes?"  replied "I put the googly eyes on because I like it." 

We also saw a number of giant ammonites.  Below are a few pictures of the better ones, probably the largest I have ever seen!  The only other possible contender that I can think of was one that I saw at the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country in (you guessed it!) Texas.  That one was a huge, probably five or six feet wide, imprint of an ammonite, right outside the entrance to the museum.  This was the same place that I have talked about before, in my Acrocanthosaurus on the Prowl post.  Great place!  I definitely recommend checking it out if you are ever in the Canyon Lake/San Antonio area of Texas!

The Heritage Museum ammonite.  Perhaps my memory is a bit off.  But I still remember it being incredibly, enormously large.  Perhaps the picture makes it looks smaller?  A mystery.  I suppose I will have to check it next time we go back there now won't I.

The ammonites, in order of amazingness.  Probably about a two, two and a half foot diameter.

Although its size was less impressive, perhaps only a foot or two wide at the most, it was most amazingly iridescent.  There were a large number of them here, but somehow I succeeded in capturing zero great pictures.  Go figure. 

Same story as above.  Not as impressive in size, but amazing in preservation quality.  Check out those septum!

Masaki next to one big ass ammonite! 

And Masaki with another big ass one!  This one a bigger ass!  Bigger ass one?  Bigger one.  A bigger one.

The third really cool thing that we saw there (that I am going to include in this post, at least) were these preserved lizards.  These lizards are from the genus Draco, and are found exclusively in Indonesia.  These lizards are remarkable as they can glide from tree to tree.  Many paleontologists and biologists speculate that this is what the earliest Pterosaurs would have looked like.  For those of you who don't know, Pterosaurs are the flying reptiles that were contemporaneous with the dinosaurs.  Often confused with the dinosaurs themselves, the Pterosaurs were distinct in that they were truly flying reptiles, and not a distinct grouping.  Calling Pterosaurs dinosaurs would be akin to calling a tiger salamander a mammal, on the sole observation that the tiger salamander is a contemporary of a squirrel.  Not so.

One specimen of the Draco lizards....

....and another!

Famous examples of Pterosaurs include (or "Pterosaurs That I Have Heard Of):

1. Anurognathus
2. Darwinopterus
3. Dimorphodon
4. Dsungaripterus
5. Eopteranodon
6. Eudimorphodon
7. Hatzegopteryx
8. Ornithocheirus
9. Peteinosaurus
10. Pteranodon
11. Pterodactylus
12. Pterodaustro
13. Quetzalcoatlus
14. Rhamphorhynchus
15. Sordes
16. Tapejara
17. Tropeognathus

You probably also know the Pterosaurs as the "Pterodactyls."  Probably should have prefaced with that.

A skull of Darwinopterus from the show.  This guy was at the booth for the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center, or RMDRC for short, an awesome museum up in Woodland Park.  

The wing of a good sized Pterosaur.  You can see at the bottom of the picture a white round thingy.  That's the ammonite featured in the picture with Masaki, above.  That should help give you an idea of the scale of the wing.  Probably around ten feet or so.  And get this; that whole thing is one enormously elongated pinky!

A fossil pterosaur from the show

Another fossil pterosaur from the show

Anyways, in the Imax production "Flying Monsters" with David Attenborough (FAVORITE.  IMAX.  EVER.), they talk about how many scientists speculate that these lizards of the genus Draco greatly resemble the earliest ancestors of the Pterosaurs.  Initially gliding from tree to tree to snatch flying insects in the air, eventually these small lizards would have become capable of powered flight.  Then, they would have grown larger and larger, until they became the biggest animals to ever take to the skies.  Except for humans, but really.  We don't really count.

Woodland Park on Dwellable