Quetzalcoatlus: Terrifying Sky-Giraffe

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any animal becomes pants-poopingly terrifying once given wings. Carpenter ants? Manageable. Flying carpenter ants? NOPE. Cockroaches? Already a pretty common phobia. Flying cockroaches? The physical embodiment of nightmared sleep without end.

The same holds here for our friend, Quetzalcoatlus.

Picture a giraffe.

Now picture a giraffe where its front legs have been replaced with leathery wings that block out the sun.

You see my point.

Unlike the giraffe, Quetzalcoatlus was native to Late Cretaceous North America--the first fossils being found in Texas at Big Bend National Park. Yeehaw! A relatively new discovery, the species was discovered in 1971 by Douglas A. Lawson, a man who stands as proof that grad school is actually good for something.

Thanks to modern fossil analysis, the Quetzalcoatlus that Lawson uncovered would have had a wingspan of nearly 40 feet across. That's the length of your average school bus! Which makes it the largest flying creature to have ever existed.

Fun fact: Lawson named the species Quetzalcoatlus after the major Mesoamerican deity, Dave.

I'm kidding, it's Quetzalcoatl.

Quetzalcoatlus was a pterosaur--flying reptiles that evolved alongside dinosaurs. That also includes pterodactyls, despite what cartoons might have told you. Along with the 30ft+ wingspan and large size, Quetzalcoatlus sported a long, stiff neck and a comically-large head like a stork's.

It's long, sharp beak seems perfectly suited for diving and scooping fish out of the oceans or rivers but there's one, big problem with that assumption.

Most Quetzalcoatlus fossils are found inland--far away from any viable source of aquatic food.

And it doesn't look like the species did much land-diving either; scientists have found that their beaks and long necks wouldn't have allowed for such attacks and their massive bodies would have created too much drag to skim above prey.

It is now more commonly believed that Quetzalcoatlus hunted across the North

American terrain on foot--snapping up small animals as it went. Smaller, more complete Quetzalcoatlus fossils show the species with better developed legs that mirrored those of regular land animals--rather than flying ones.

Which begs the question: why even have wings if they did all their eating on land? Scientists Mike Habib and Mark Witton gave their answer in 2010 when their simulated flight models found that Quetzalcoatlus was a long-distance flyer--capable of flying for a week or longer across land and sea!

Flying cockroaches almost don't seem so bad in comparison.

Almost.

Top left: photo credited to Melanie Dretvic on Unsplash

Bottom right: photo credited to Mark Witton

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