To the new Jurassic Park film – How could the 250-kilogram ruler of the skies fly?

– How was the 250-kilogram ruler of the skies able to fly?

The pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus shows enormous flying skills in the new movie «Jurassic World». But experts are puzzled as to how the giant lizard rose into the air.

Jakob Wetzel

Posted today at 8:09 p.m

Big beak, long neck: This is what the Quetzalcoatlus must have looked like.

Visualization: Pawel Opaska (Panther Media)

A warning light comes on in the cockpit, a scream and he’s there. A giant pterosaur falls from the sky, attacks the heroes’ plane, shreds its turbines with its meter-long beak, and takes off once more. Universal Pictures uses this scene to promote the sixth part of the Jurassic Park film series. And even this foretaste makes it clear: the rulers of the air are gigantic flying lizards in the film.

“Jurassic World: A New Age” will be in Swiss cinemas on Thursday. There are scientific blurs in all the films in the series; for example, most dinosaurs were probably not green-brown scaly beings as depicted, but feathered and brightly colored. Now some scientists from Japan and France have examined the aerodynamics of various primeval giants and conclude in the journal “PNAS Nexus”: The pterosaur would probably never have controlled any airspace. He might only fly badly. He spent most of his time on the floor.

The pterodactyl shown in the film is a Quetzalcoatlus; the genus is named following a Mesoamerican god often depicted as a feathered serpent. With a wingspan of more than ten meters, Quetzalcoatlus is the largest known pterosaur and lived in the Upper Cretaceous, so it was a contemporary of Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. And like them, it died out 66 million years ago following an asteroid impact.

How did the pterosaur start?

The flight of Quetzalcoatlus has long puzzled researchers. How did this giant lizard, which recent estimates weighed around 250 kilograms, manage to fly? Even the start seems difficult: The standing Quetzalcoatlus resembles a giraffe; because of its relatively short legs, its torso was probably too close to the ground for the animal to flap its wings effectively. So did he jump off a cliff to take off, or ran down a slope like a paraglider?

Most recently, the notion that the Quetzalcoatlus jumped on all fours in the air to take off has prevailed. But once he was up, how did he stay up? Given its size, researchers concluded years ago that it would have been disproportionately exhausting. They assumed that the animals glided and sailed through the air and used thermals like a modern-day eagle or vulture.

But even that was obviously not the case with Quetzalcoatlus. Scientists led by Yusuke Goto from the French research center CNRS have calculated how well modern and extinct birds and the pterodactyls Pteranodon and Quetzalcoatlus were able to use thermals to soar into the air. All of the extinct animals studied were therefore fairly good gliders. But Quetzalcoatlus fell out of line. While everyone else, according to the calculations, climbed effortlessly in thermal updrafts, the giant spiraled downwards.

Bad flight characteristics

The Quetzalcoatlus was just too heavy. With its flight characteristics, it performs worse than today’s giant bustards – these are African birds weighing up to almost 20 kilograms, which mainly live in the countryside and only fly in emergencies to escape hunters. The scientists imagine the behavior of Quetzalcoatlus to be similar. He therefore mostly walked over the earth, on legs and winged arms. To hunt or flee, he might flap through the air for short distances. His weight didn’t allow for more.

Posted today at 8:09 p.m

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