Dragon-resembling pretosaurs were possibly largest flying animals ever to exist

In a new study published in Current Biology, researchers from the University of Leicester examined the first true flying vertebrates in a new, unusual way: through their hands and feet.

The study states that their “ability to move around on the ground” remains limited. Hence, the lack of investigation into their hands and feet is notable, “considering the fundamental role they play in locomotion.”

This terrestrial angle revealed something new and exciting about these majestic and awesome creatures. In a macroevolutionary event or a large moment in history, such as the spawn of mammals or flowering plants, pterodactyloid pterosaurs touched ground in the Middle Jurassic.

“This transition,” interestingly enough, “marked the emergence of proficient terrestrial ability in pterosaurs, triggering a dramatic diversification of dietary ecologies,” as stated in the study.

As Live Science reported, these gigantic creatures could grow to such an impressive size because they could “walk well,” so the recent study opened up a new understanding of their evolutionary process.

The key to understanding the first flyers is their ability to ground

In gathering “64 taxa, representing 18/20 principal pterosaur groups” across their impressive 160 million-year history, researchers found an incredible diversity in their hands and feet.

They “achieved,” according to the study, also “an extraordinary range of body sizes unmatched by any other flying animals.” So they are unique as the first flyers but also among the flying animals.

Though their wing span extended far before the Middle Jurassic, it was during this period that their terrestrial abilities shifted significantly, so their innate nature to expand enabled them to cover new ground and grow in size.

Live Science mentioned Dracula, the largest known pterosaur ever found, which raised questions about whether the fearsome creature could fly, and it might have. As a diagram in National Geographic demonstrates , their strong limbs enabled “the weirdest wonders on wings” to launch into the skies aided by the rest of their anatomy .

But it seems that their hands and feet opened up a macroevolutionary moment. Even if they are extinct now, 160 million years is an impressive lifespan. They weren’t always able to fly, either, which the new study harkens back to, that they were already “pioneering new niches.”

Since flight remains a deep human desire, the key to flight might not be in the wings but in the hands and feet, perhaps. However, the research suggests that they transitioned to becoming more grounded to develop “unprecedented feeding strategies.”

Leaders in the skies and on foot

Whereas conventional thought had pigeonholed to a restricted niche of behavior and ecological impact, their hands and feet reveal the opposite. They played “a wide array of non-aerial ecological roles” as was their first domain before taking off into the skis as Mesozoic archosaurs , the ancestors of living birds and crocodilians , interestingly enough.

Researchers made major headway in understanding early evolution, specifically pterosaurs, by examining their hands and feet. The study concludes that” it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of their non-aerial ecologies,” as the study authors also told Live Science , “in addition to their flight capabilities .”