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Old 02-12-2019, 08:12 AM   #9
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 Icelander View Post
If they eat fish, they need to be able to pluck the fish from where they find them.
They didn't.

Okay, we can't be absolutely sure that they didn't, but the current best thought is that they were stalking land predators something like storks. Really, really big storks. They probably ate a lot of baby dinosaurs, or the smaller dog-sized dinosaurs, and other animals of about the same size. Hatzegopteryx might have been able to choke down a human, but that's currently uncertain (but - magic interdimensional Antarctic space Nazis. In that setting they can eat people if you want them to).

So the Azhdarchids walked around on land like giraffe-tall storks, plucking dinosaurs from the fern prairies and fields of waving horsetails. They took off (we think) by tilting forward so their weight was on their wings, then jumping with their wings up into the air.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Ax_Rhlpv...Blow%2Bres.jpg (a couple giant Azhdarchids next to a human and a giraffe)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gj1161ZTs9...Blow%2Bres.jpg (feeding behavior in Arambourgiania)
https://static.scientificamerican.co...od-Zoology.jpg (hunting Hatzegopteryx)
https://static.scientificamerican.co...od-Zoology.jpg (hunting Quetzalcoatlus)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALziqtuLxBQ (animation of pterosaur launch)
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