The largest flying animal ever—revealed by just 16 bones

Thanks to Storyblocks for sponsoring this video! Download unlimited stock media at one set price with Storyblocks: https://storyblocks.com/howtown Howtown is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI. https://sloan.org/ https://www.theimi.co/ To support independent science journalism, join us at patreon.com/Howtown Sources and further reading: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Umv9tV7Ja-sy8gFUVEeTO0tLjGsDq0KpNrlLcKyTJ6Y Thank you to Lexi McQueen! @blackgirlmage.bsky.social‬ @blackgirlmage And to Mark Witton for the illustrations https://www.patreon.com/markwitton We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council: Bev Fong Chris Wubbels Sean Barrett Mike Purvis Jon Hewett Albychen Hernando Garcia Sean Talon Evan Hass Mark Tinker Julian Mayorga L.A. O’Connor Marcos Huerta Joaquim Salles Sam Gaty Jason Dunlap Parag Mallick Edgar Sutawika Richard Gladas Tim Davey Navneet Tra Him Taylor Pedro ZM Ale Martin Weeks Dimi Bryce Golden-Chen Estelle Caswell Yashaswi Narasimha martin david Marc Hermes Matthew Stvartak Garret Wates Slightly Suspicious Mind Kellyn Lorentzen-Goler omg.science Duncan Stannett Keith England Aaron Wesson Quetzalcoatlus, one of the largest known flying animals, survives in science as sixteen wing bones pulled from Cretaceous Big Bend by grad student Doug Lawson in 1971. Paleontologists reverse-engineer the rest of its body by referencing its Azhdarchid cousins like Zhejiangopterus, and Q. lawsoni, making inferences from extant archosaurs like birds and alligators, examining trackways, and modeling their wings in flight software. Still, there's a lot that they don't know about how these giant pterosaurs lived. Thin bone walls, rare 3-D preservation, and million-to-one erosion odds explain why cousins Hatzegopteryx, Arambourgiania, Cryodrakon, and Thanatosdrakon remain fragmentary in the fossil record. The sparse clues they left behind have inspired a wide range of depictions in documentaries over the years, the pinnacle of which was Prehistoric Planet from the BBC's Natural History team. Chapters: 0:00 Love at first sight 2:20 He found it in Texas 4:09 Meet the Azhdarchids 6:02 Why these bones are rare 8:11 Pterosaur bodies 9:43 Cousins 11:50 Dissections 13:15 Footprints 14:27 Flight 15:52 Unknowns