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Old 02-12-2019, 11:22 AM   #11
lwcamp
 
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: The plutonium rich regions of Washington State
Default Re: Pterosaur Size, Weight, ST and Maximum Encumbrance when Flying

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
I was aware before how big they were, but Luke, you've given me a sudden appreciation for how terrifying they were.
Bwa-hahaha!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
With the strength of their forelimbs, is the mouth (beak?) designed such that it makes sense they might be able to pin a human down and pull more-bite-sized limbs off or otherwise pieces? I'm thinking like a predatory bird eats, such as a falcon or eagle.
It's not hooked, which seems like it would make that harder, and I don't know if the long neck/beak would mess with leverage.
Looking around a bit, I found the following paper on Azhdarchid neck biomechanics
https://peerj.com/articles/2908/
I lifted the following quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Naish and Witton
Modern studies on azhdarchid foraging behaviour suggest that they were terrestrially-foraging generalists (Witton & Naish, 2008; Witton & Naish, 2015; Carroll, Poust & Varricchio, 2013; Witton, in press). What little is known of giant azhdarchid anatomy is similar enough to that of the smaller, better known azhdarchids to assume that they also foraged terrestrially, albeit perhaps with a greater emphasis on carnivory. We propose that gracile giants like Arambourgiania consumed relatively small prey such as early juvenile and hatchling dinosaurs, large eggs and other diminutive components of Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems (Fig. 9A). This is in keeping with proposals that some giants occupied ‘middle tier’ predatory niches in some Cretaceous ecosystems (Witton & Naish, 2015). Hatzegopteryx, however, shows potential for tackling much larger prey items, perhaps even killing animals too large to ingest whole (modern azhdarchid analogues, such as storks, are capable of attacking large animals, and killing human children, with their azhdarchid-like beaks: see Witton & Naish (2015) for discussion). Hatzegopteryx is the largest terrestrial predator known in Maastrichtian eastern Europe by some margin (Witton & Naish, 2015): its size, robust anatomy, and the deficit of other large carnivores in well-sampled European deposits implies that it may have been an arch predator in its community (Fig. 9B).
So from this, I would guess that Quetzalcoatlus and Aramourgiania wouldn't have been very good t dismembering prey and probably just swallowed up to dog-sized things whole, but Hatzegopteryx might well have been able to tear its victims apart, maybe by gripping a limb in its beak and vigorously shaking, or by grabbing one end in its beak, stomping on the other end, and then just pulling up with its powerful neck muscles.

Luke
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