Giant Pterosaur with Neck Longer Than Giraffes' Flew 100 Million Years Ago, Scientists Believe

Approximately 100 million years ago, giant flying reptiles that have long necks even longer than those of giraffes and scientists had identified as giant pterosaur flew to the skies of Modern-Day Morocco.

According to a Science report, scientists think this type of pterosaur, with its large jaw and slim neck, preyed on small mammals, fish, and even baby dinosaurs.

However, the manner their necks are not snapping as they carried their prey has been said to be a long, unsolved mystery.

Now, a new study presents the bones inside had a complicated 'spokelike' structure, making them stable and strong, although light enough to fly.

Named after a dragonlike creature in Persian Mythology, Azhdarchid pterosaurs from Morocco are among the largest flying animals that ever existed.

With wingspans up to eight meters and necks, as long as 1.5 meters, researchers have always wondered how their atypical bodies enabled them to hunt, walk and fly.

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100-Million-Year-Old Pterosaur

According to Nizar Ibrahim, co-author of the study and a University of Portsmouth anatomist and paleontologist, with size "comes all kinds of complicated biological problems."

Researchers studied a well-preserved azhdarchid pterosaur vertebra's internal structure to discover more about the creature's bones.

It was almost 100 million years old and had been discovered in a fossil-rich region close to the border of Morocco and Algebra called Kem Kem beds.

Through the use of a 3D-modeling and an x-ray computed tomography, the scientists discovered the vertebra was filled with lots of one-million-thick spikes, also known as trabeculae, that cross each other like the spokes of a bicycle wheel in cross-section and form a helix along the bone, The New York Times said.

The spokes hemmed in a central tube where the spinal cord of the animal would have been. A paleontologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Cariad Williams said, they just could not believe it.

Doubling the Ability to Carry Weight

A similar ScienceDaily report said, Williams, who first looked at the scans, added, they have never seen anything like that in the past, and it was quite impressive.

And, to test if the spokes provided additional support to the bones, the study authors did some computational modeling.

As a result, they discovered that as few as 50 trabeculae nearly doubled the ability of the vertebra to carry weight.

The study authors calculated as well that their specimen's neck could lift prey that weighed between nine and 11 kilograms, approximately the same as a large turkey's size. Describing their study finding, Ibrahim said, the new discovery is a real feat of biological engineering.

Azhdarchid Pterosaurs Suspiciously Ate Large Prey

Aside from enabling the pterosaurs to catch and carry their prey, their necks' intricate bone structure could have helped them endure the strong winds that buffeted their huge skulls as they flew or fellow males' fierce blows during rivalry fights.

Rodrigo Pegas, from the Federal University of ABC, Sao Bernardo said, a lot of researchers suspected that azhdarchid pterosaurs consumed large prey, although it is the first time they have tested the hypothesis through the use of information on internal bone structure.

The evaluation the research team used to exhibit how the vertebrae would respond to external forces was specifically good, explained Pegas.

It is interesting, he elaborated, that they were able to show quantitatively that the animal had the capability to lift such prey.

Nonetheless, Pegas said, he wishes the research team had scanned the other pterosaurs' vertebrae to know if the spokelike bones were unusual to the azhdarchids.

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