There were no flying dinosaurs. We got it all wrong.

Although dinosaurs are extinct today, they are still considered one of the most amazing creatures that have ever walked the Earth.

Are there flying dinosaurs? Do they really exist? Answer: There were no flying dinosaurs.

So far, there is no scientific record of dinosaurs that were able to fly. However, some reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs could fly, and they were called pterosaurs! AndPterosaurs are not dinosaurs.

Before the advent of birds and flying mammals such as bats, flying reptiles called pterosaurs, literally "winged lizards," dominated the Earth's skies. The first pterosaur fossils were discovered in Bavaria, Germany, in 1784 by the famous Italian naturalist Cosimo Alessandro Collini. Early scientists named these flying creatures pterodactyls, and many modern paleontologists now refer to them as pterosaurs.

These animals are considered the earliest flying vertebrates, appearing from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous. Unlike feathered birds, pterosaurs had wings formed from skin and muscle tissue.

People once thought that these flying reptiles were not adapted for flight, but relied on gliding. However, based on the analysis of pterosaur fossils, it was found that all pterosaurs were capable of active flight, that is, they had "power" to drive. These animals had several physical characteristics that enabled them to maintain powered flight: a large brain, highly developed optic lobes (related to vision), and many tubercles in the bones where the muscles needed for flight were attached.

So why are pterosaurs not dinosaurs? What is the relationship between them?

In many popular media and children's books, pterosaurs are often mistaken for "flying dinosaurs", which is a wrong perception. The reason why pterosaurs do not belong to dinosaurs is mainly because they belong to different categories. They both originated from the archosaurs of the bird-necked class, but later differentiated into two species, so pterosaurs and dinosaurs are not subordinate. In addition, the definition of dinosaurs also states that it is a reptile that can walk upright on its hind limbs, while pterosaurs cannot walk upright.

Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but they are related in evolution. Pterosaurs belong to the order Pterosauria, and dinosaurs belong to the order Dinosauria. They show convergent evolution in evolution. Dinosaurs refer to specific land reptiles that can take an upright gait, and do not include pterosaurs; pterosaurs are just flying reptiles. In other words, pterosaurs and dinosaurs are like "cousins", close relatives, and are two evolutionary directions living in the same era, and their most recent ancestors are called ornithopods.  

There is more than one type of pterosaur. The name is a general term for many prehistoric flying reptiles. Pterosaur is a general term for animals in the order Pterosauria. The largest pterosaur has a wingspan of up to 12 meters.

Here are some pictures of pterosaurs, take a look at their characteristics:

animal tags： Pterosaur