Quetzalcoatlus

Quetzalcoatlus Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous
Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Pterosauria
Suborder:	Pterodactyloidea
Family:	Azhdarchidae
Genus:	Quetzalcoatlus Lawson, 1975

Quetzalcoatlus ^[1] was a huge pterosaur, the largest animal ever to fly. It had a 10 to 12 meters wing-span (33/40 feet),^[2] but was light in construction (~200 pounds).^[3]

Quetzalcoatlus had an unusually long neck, and when it stood on the ground it was as tall as a giraffe.

Its fossil record is from the Upper Cretaceous of North America, 70–65.5 million years ago. Quetzalcoatlus became extinct at the K/T extinction event.

1. ↑ The word comes from the Aztec language, and is the name of a Mesoamerican deity meaning 'feathered serpent'. It's pronounced something like 'Ketzal-ko-atlus'.
2. ↑ Langston, W. 1981. Pterosaurs, Scientific American, 244: 122-136.
3. ↑ Atanassov, Momchil N.; Strauss, Richard E. (2002). "How much did Archaeopteryx and Quetzalcoatlus weigh? Mass estimation by multivariate analysis of bone dimensions". Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)