Northrop’s Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatlus northropi


(Lawson, 1975)

            As the Cretaceous draws to a close, two groups of flying vertebrates rule the skies of Earth.  The birds, occupying most small-flier niches, are the more numerous of the two, but their ancient cousins, the pterosaurs, are the unquestioned rulers of the great heights and distances.  Soaring on their long, wide wings, the Cretaceous pterosaurs have grown huge.

            Even among its albatross-sized relatives, Quetzalcoatlus northropi is a giant.   With a wingspan of 11 meters, Q. northropi is the largest flying animal ever known on Earth, built for gliding and able to soar for immense distances with little exertion.  This ability is essential for survival, as Q. northropi depends upon a fairly transient source of food, small lakes and rivers.

            Q. northropi is, for all practical purposes, a giant stork.   These giant fliers will alight near any sizable body of water and wade through the weeds and mud in search of fish and other small water animals to snap up.    Stilt-like legs and arms hold the little furry body of Q. northropi above the water, while a long, flexible neck supports the animal’s most versatile tool, its beak.   The head of Q. northropi, is a boxy construction of bone, large but very light, which tapers gently into a long, fine-tipped beak, a great scoop-like trowel with the delicacy of a pair of chopsticks.   These gangling pterosaurs can snatch agile and slippery prey with ease, but, like their close relative, Zhenjiangopterus, Q. northropi can also strain scoops of water through their wide beaks, supping on the multitudes of tiny invertebrates suspended in the muck.

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© Daniel Bensen 2002
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