New Scientist
Image: Manchester-Monkey
Pterosaurs may have been furry rather than feathery, but they may were not so very different from birds in other respects. A set of footprints unearthed in France is the first to show one of the winged reptiles coming into land – and suggests they did so in much the same way as most modern birds.
While dinosaurs wandered the lands of the Mesozoic era, their relatives the pterosaurs occupied the skies. The flying reptiles remain something of a palaeontological puzzle – some even question whether the largest pterosaurs could fly at all.
An exceptional set of footprints preserved in 150-million-year-old rock near Crayssac in south-west France holds some answers to pterosaur behaviour. They record the moment a small pterosaur came into land, says Kevin Padian at the University of California, Berkeley. Read more on newscientist.com…
