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Hey there!
Squeaks and I are getting ready for a big trip.
We’re going to take an airplane… and it will be Squeak’s first time ever, flying.
[Squeaks squeaks]
And even though he was pretty nervous about it,
we’ve been learning all about flying to help him feel better.
[Squeaks squeaks]
You’re right, Squeaks.
It seems pretty amazing that things as big as planes can fly!
A lot of the things that we see that can fly, — like insects, bats, and birds, aren’t
nearly so big.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Squeaks wants to know if any animal that could fly was as big as an airplane.
Well, not as big as the jumbo jet we’re going to take.
But scientists think that once, a long time ago,
there was an animal about as big as a smaller airplane that flew in Earth’s skies.
It was a giant reptile that lived millions of years ago… and its name is Quetzalcoatlus.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Oh, good question!
Even though Quetzalcoatlus lived at the same time as some dinosaurs, it wasn’t a dinosaur.
Dinosaurs are just one group of animals that lived a long time ago,
so not all of the animals that lived in the past are dinosaurs.
There were actually lots of animals living with the dinosaurs!
Things like turtles, small furry mammals, and crocodiles
all lived at the same time as dinosaurs, too.
And there were the pterosaurs, which is the group that Quetzalcoatlus comes from!
Pterosaurs and dinosaurs have different shaped bones in their hips and in their arms,
which helps us tell that they’re not the same group of animals.
Like lots of other ancient plants and animals…
Quetzalcoatlus is extinct, which means it’s not found anywhere on Earth any more.
And it went extinct long before people were around on Earth.
So no one has ever seen one when it was alive.
But we do know some pretty cool things about this animal.
Like, Quetzalcoatus was really big.
It was as tall as a giraffe…
[Squeaks squeaks]
Right!
And it was as big as a small airplane with its wings stretched out.
No one has actually ever seen a Quetzalcoatlus,
so have never had the chance to watch it and see if it could fly.
Still, many scientists believe they did!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Good question, Squeaks!
How do we know so much about these extinct animals if no one has ever seen them?
Well, there are scientists who study ancient life that are called paleontologists.
They look for clues that the Quetzalcoatlus and other ancient forms of life have left behind.
They put the clues together like a puzzle, to make a picture of what this giant animal was like.
[Squeaks squeaks]
What kind of clues?
Well, the best-known kinds of clues are fossils.
Those are bones and other traces of ancient living things, like Quetzalcoatlus.
Fossils of pterosaurs helped us figure out that they had big, long wings.
We can find very long, stretched-out bones.
And right by those bones are marks in the dirt that were made by the Quetzalcoatlus’ skin.
The marks show us that the long bones were connected by the skin to make a wing!
Paleontologists look at things like the shape of the bones,
and compare them to the shape of animals that are living today.
If they look similar, then it makes sense that ancient animals
might have something in common with animals living today.
And when we compare the wings of animals today to Quetzalcoatlus’s wings,
we think that Quetzalcoatlus flew too!
Not all animals that have wings can fly.
Some, like ostriches and kiwis, don’t.
But Quetzalcoatlus’s wings had lots of strong muscles.
This looks different from the wings of birds that don’t fly, like the kiwi.
And it does look like many birds that do fly.
We think that Quetzalcoatlus used their wings and their legs to leap into the air.
And they probably only had to flap their wings a few times to keep themselves up there.
[Squeaks squeaks]
That’s right, it would look kind of like a kite!
Kites don't have to move or flap to stay in the air.
Just the air is enough to hold it up there, which is exactly what we think
the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus would keep itself soaring through the sky.
Once in the air, they could probably travel about 16,000 kilometers without stopping.
That’s almost halfway around the Earth!
[Squeaks squeaks]
That’s great, buddy!
Squeaks says with everything he’s learned, he’s not scared to go on a plane any more.
In fact, he’s really excited!
Knowing more about the world always makes it less scary.
And I think we’re in for a fun adventure.
Don’t you?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Thanks for joining us here on SciShow Kids.
If you want to keep learning and having fun with Squeaks, me, and all our other friends,
be sure to hit the subscribe button, and we'll see you next time here at The Fort!
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