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Colossal Creature
NOT A DINO: Although pterosaurs like the one illustrated here are often called flying dinosaurs, they come from different evolutionary groups.
Scientists recently announced the discovery of ancient remains from a giant winged creature in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The now-extinct giant pterosaur was one of the largest living things to ever take flight.
Pterosaurs lived around the same time as dinosaurs, more than 100 million years ago. They were the first vertebrates—animals with a backbone—to evolve the ability to fly.
The recently discovered giant pterosaur was the first ever found in Asia. “This new find shows that giant pterosaurs had spread over most of the world before being wiped out,” says Brian Andres, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin.
This chart shows the height and wingspan of a giant pterosaur compared with the height and arm span of an average adult male. About how many humans would need to stand together with their arms outstretched to equal the pterosaur’s wingspan?