Pterosaurs — massive, winged reptiles more closely related to birds than modern lizards — are some of the strangest animals known to science.
Pterosaurs of the Azhdarchidae family (known as azhdarchids) had necks longer than those of giraffes.
Before now it was unclear how the thin bones required for flight could support the weight of their heads, especially when they were capturing prey.
Researchers from the U.S. and the U.K. recently found a surprising answer to that question.
The vertebrae of azhdarchid pterosaurs have an internal structure unlike anything seen before, they report in a new study.
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The researchers made the discovery while modeling the movement of pterosaur vertebrae, and got more than they bargained for from a CT scan.
"These animals have ridiculously long necks. It makes a giraffe look perfectly normal. We wanted to know a bit about how this incredibly long neck functioned, as it seems to have very little mobility between each vertebra." — First author Cariad Williams, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Though the finding published in iScience answers one perplexing question about pterosaurs, the researchers say fundamental mysteries about the extraordinary creatures’ flight and eating habits remain.
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