Earth Sciences 2266F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Pterodactyloidea, Rhamphorhynchoidea, Metacarpal Bones
26 Jul 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Pterodactyloids are the more specialized species, i. e. true pterosaurs. Skull starts to get more slender to specialize. Teeth become modified: very fine like a sieve or scoop, and other ones lost their teeth (like birds) Long tail seen in rhamphorhynchoid, and short tail seen in pterodactyloids. Compare to tailed kite (left fig): wings aren"t that powerful yet, so long tail helps stabilize them in the air. Long tail is good for maneouvrability in the air. Compare to acrobatic kite (right fig): can have acrobatic movement, with a short tail and much larger wings compared to its body size. So by this time, pterodactyls have powerful muscles to control their wings, and thus don"t need a long tail anymore (much more manoeuvrable, but need a lot of control) Tail reduction: convergent evolution with birds; like archaeopteryx has long tail but nowadays, birds like geese have a very short tail.
