One of the first and largest creatures to develop flight, pterosaurs, are frequently referred to as the hip relatives of the notorious Tyrannosaurus rex.
The flying pterosaur. Photograph: Davide Bonadonna
Scientists have now identified the 100 million year-old key to the flying pterosaur's success: a neck longer than a giraffe.
How enormous flying azhdarchid pterosaurs supported their narrow necks as they took off and flew while carrying massive prey creatures has baffled palaeontologists from Portsmouth University.
However, the issue has been cleared up thanks to recent CT scans of intact remains that were found in Morocco.
The research, which was published in the journal iScience, depicts a complicated picture of spoke-like structures stacked in a helix inside the neck vertebra around a central tube, much like a bicycle wheel.
According to legend, this elaborate pattern shows how these flying reptiles evolved to support their enormous heads, which frequently measure longer than 1.5 meters.
The "lightweight" design may have provided strength without sacrificing the pterosaurs' capacity for flight, according to scientists.
It is unlike anything previously observed in a vertebra of any animal, according to Dave Martill, a professor of palaeobiology at Portsmouth. A number of thin rod-like trabeculae, which are radially oriented like the spokes of a bicycle wheel and helically arranged down the length of the vertebra, connect the neural tube to the exterior wall, which is located in the vertebra's center.
They even intersect one another like bicycle wheel spokes. These critters have evolved into amazing, mind-blowingly effective flyers.
When a CT scan was made available, researchers took opportunity to check inside the pterosaur's neck in addition to their primary goal of examining its structure and motion.
According to analysis, the pterosaur's neck's 50 "spokes" could result in a 90% increase in buckling resistance.
Scientists think the complex design could aid architects in creating lighter, longer, thinner structures.
These animals have absurdly long necks, and in some species, the fifth vertebra from the head is as long as the animal's body, according to Cariad Williams, the report's first author.
A CT scan of the pterosaur bone showing the spoke-like structures, arranged in a helix around a central tube inside the vertebra. Photograph: Davide Bonadonna
It presents a giraffe in a very natural light. We were curious as to how this extraordinarily long neck worked because it appeared to have very little movement between the vertebrae.
About 225 million years ago, pterosaurs first appeared in fossil records. They vanished alongside their dinosaur cousins at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago.
Thanks to these remains from North Africa, scientists say they are now eager to provide answers to fundamental concerns, like how pterosaurs—which may have wingspan of up to 12 meters—flew.
What was truly amazing, according to Martill, was how well the internal structure had been kept. When we looked at the structure of bone cells under the microscope, it was the same. We knew there was something remarkable going on as soon as we noticed the complex pattern of radial trabeculae.
