Quetzelcoatlus northropi

Work in progress sketch for Quetzelcoatlus northropi. Discovered in 1971 in Texas by Douglas Lawson, this pterosaur lived during the Late Cretaceous (68 to 66 million years ago) and was one of the largest animals capable of flight in the fossil record. With an estimated wingspan of roughly 33 feet and a walking height of roughly 16 feet in height, with terrestrial proportions having been compared to those of a modern day Giraffe, only with a skull longer than a fully grown human. Despite this size it was relatively lightly built with upper estimates being between 440 to 550 pounds.

Not the only giant pterosaur, Q. northropi was part of a family of huge Cretaceous flyers called Azhdarchidae, with members of said family spread throughout the world.

  It's thought that Quetzelcoatlus likely acted as giant Heron-like predators, hunting down prey in terrestrial and shallow water environments. Evidence suggests that it was quite ambulatory, walking on all 4 limbs while on the ground with it's wings folded at the sides. Very recently published research suggests that the hind legs were likely free of wing membrane and that such attachments would have been functionally useless based on the known anatomy.

It is important to not that the fossil remains of Quetzelcoatlus northropi are very fragmentary and much of the suggested proportions are drawn from other related (but smaller specimens) both of which were found in the Javelina formation. The smaller specimen was name as a different species of the same genus with more research being conducted on the larger remains to determine if they were the same or a different species.