Do you know a spectacular flying animal lived on this earth for over 65 million years ago? Yes! Arambourgiania philadelphiae, a pterosaur, lived a long time back. Mark Witton, a paleobiologist, set a mission to educate more people about this group of reptiles, which look like a dinosaur but far different from them.
About Arambourgiania
It lived during the late Cretaceous period, which was the same period as that of Tyrannosaurus rex. It was a massive creature with an estimated height of 10m and had an unusually long neck. It was one of the giant flying reptiles which were around the size of a small plane. It looked like a flying giraffe, which might be slightly small. It had another unique feature that it had an unusual length of three meters.
The documentation
There’s no evidence of time regarding this documentation; however, Witton said, it might be discovered in the 1930s or early 1940s. It is confirmed that it was found in Jordan and its specimen was written in a 1954 paper by French paleontologist, Camille Arambourg. It is how the pterosaur, Arambourgiania philadelphiae got its name.
The fossil
The fossil of this reptile had a long and thin tubular bone indicated that the animal neck was massive and quite inflexible. It was quite interesting as usual, and people are not accustomed to seeing creatures with stiff long necks that could fly.
According to Habib, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California suggested that the flying animal can balance during the flight by adjusting its shoulders and wings. It is how all the giant pterosaurs did during that time.
The fossil’s skull suggests that these creatures had freakishly large heads, but it was lighter than it looked – thin but rigid bone structure. Some time back, a few more parts of the pterosaur fossils were found by the researchers at the University of Michigan, which further helped to learn more about the creature. The paleobiologists understood more about how they lived, moved, or flew.
Flight
According to Habib, certain things can be figured out by the massive size of this creature. It was suggested that because of its size, it was difficult for it to stay afloat for a long time; however, the truth was that it was able to flap for a long time. It had a great flight range that could have possibly traveled the world.
More about Arambourgiania
- This pterosaur was more than just a pterodactyl. It is a part of the long history of the planet.
- It lived in a marine environment.
- It was given its name by Lev Nesov et al. in the year 1987.
- A fossil bone of two feet long was found on the Amman-Damascus railway line near Russeifa, Jordan.