Its long, narrow wings - lifted vertically to act like sails - and a large bony crest on the head, severely contrasted with its spindly body, but helpedTapejarato not only sail but also control its direction.
Credit: Sankar Chaterjee
SYDNEY: An anatomical reanalysis of an extinct pterosaur, dating to the time of the dinosaurs, suggests the creature literally sailed the seas.
"Their design is very similar to a sailing ship, but nobody had come up with the idea that they could actually sail like a sailing boat," said Sankar Chatterjee, a geoscientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, USA.
Chaterjee presented his findings this week at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, where he told delegates that the reptile's versatile design could be used to inspire military defence robots.
Size of a small aircraft
Often confused with dinosaurs, pterosaurs (or pterodactyls) are members of another group of reptiles, related to birds, dinosaurs and crocodiles. They were an enormously successful group, which ranged from the size of a sparrow to that of a small aircraft, and dominated the world's skies from 228 to 65 million years ago.
Tapejara wellnhoferi was one species, which lived 115 million years ago on what is today the Brazilian coastline. With a wingspan up to 1.5 m across, the species was first discovered from fossils ten years ago, but researchers have until now been unsure as to how to reconstruct the bones.
A team led by Chatterjee - and including an animal flight expert and an aeronautical engineer - completed a skeletal reconstruction of the creature, and studied the aero-hydrodynamics of its wings using the principles of physics and a computer simulation.
Exceptional animal
What they found suggested it was an exceptional animal in terms of locomotion and could reconfigure itself at will. "This animal was so versatile. It could walk very well on four legs; it could walk on two legs; it could fly and it could sail," said Chatterjee.
Its long, narrow wings - lifted vertically to act like sails - and a large bony crest on the head, severely contrasted with its spindly body, but helped Tapejara to not only sail but also control its direction.
The wings would transition into sails, protected by actinofibrils, a rod like structure protecting the wing skin, suggested Chaterjee. The bony crest would be the sailboats 'jib' or front sail, and helped control direction.
Flying Reptile
After reading all the things that this bird could do, I am puzzled as to why this thing died out. Seems as though it had every thing going for it...sailboating, flying, landing on water, running on four legs and two legs...Wonder what happened?