When was the last time a bird pooped on you?
Well, apparently, you have a better chance of
winning the lottery than you do of
getting pooped on by a bird,
which is why some cultures
consider this unexpected,
unpleasant occurrence
to be good luck!
But there's nothing lucky about this.
Look at the sky!
It's not a bird, or a plane,
it's a pterodactyl!
They never went extinct,
and you have to deal with them.
But how?
If pterodactyls never went extinct,
would we consider them to be
food, friends or a new way to get around?
First things first: pterodactyls are
properly referred to as pterosaurs.
But they're not technically dinosaurs.
Pterosaurs are giant winged reptiles,
and there are several different species of them,
in all sorts of shapes and sizes!
Of course, no human has ever seen a pterosaur,
since they went extinct
about 66 million years ago,
which is way before humans showed up.
But from old bones and fossilized remains,
we can get an idea
of what it might've been like
to live alongside these giant, flying...
things...
Or, do we even want to know?
Pterosaurs.
How big were they?
And what would we do with them?
Because you know that humans
can't just leave an exotic creature
to do whatever it wants on its own!
Would we keep them as pets?
Or farm them for meat?
Or would we leave our bikes and cars
in the garage and
simply fly to work?
It's not as easy as that.
Some pterosaurs,
like the Quetzalcoatlus northropi,
could be as tall as giraffes
with wings that stretched 11 m (36 ft) wide!
But you might be able to keep
this little guy in your home!
Nemicolopterus crypticus
was one of the smallest pterosaurs,
with a wingspan less than 25 cm (10 in).
That's probably how it got its name,
which means "hidden flying forest dweller."
But if keeping pterosaurs as pets
is either too dangerous for you,
or simply too impractical,
why don't we find out how they taste?
I hope you don't have a big appetite, because
despite their size,
pterosaurs don't offer much meat.
Aside from their huge wingspan,
their legs, arms and torsos are tiny.
So it would definitely not be worth
the cost and effort of
raising a pterosaur for food.
Maybe we could ride them?
Once a theme park ride, now a reality.
You could ride a pterosaur
if they were still alive today.
But the flight wouldn't be
as majestic as you might imagine.
First of all, they wouldn't be able
to carry just anyone.
With the largest pterosaurs weighing
an estimated 180 - 250 kg (400-550 lbs),
they could probably only comfortably
lift and carry smaller people.
But I don't know,
would you let your kid on one of these things?
Once airborne,
you wouldn't be flying for very long
until it would be time to touch down again.
Like modern birds and bats,
pterosaurs would cover long distances
by soaring,
rather than constantly flapping their wings.
After taking off,
they would flap their wings to gain altitude,
and upon reaching a sufficient height,
they'd simply glide
until they needed to get higher,
or felt like landing for a rest.
But with your extra weight on their back,
they probably wouldn't be able to
glide for very long.
Not to mention that it probably wouldn't be
a very comfortable ride,
because it would be incredibly cold,
and hard to breathe at the higher altitudes.
So maybe it's for the best
that we never lived with pterosaurs.
They probably weren't as menacing as
the movies make them out to be, but,
I don't think anyone would want to be
showered with their "good luck" either!
Now, if you think that's worrying,
can you imagine how scary it would be
if dinosaurs never went extinct?
Well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.