Friday, September 30, 2011

Flying Reptiles, Coming To A Theater Near You

David Attenborough's account of reptiles that lived 170 million years ago - reptiles that could fly - is being released this December.

The structure and animation of the pterosaur in this film is promoted as true to fossil record. So I had to watch it 17 times and "omg" 17 times. They didn't have feathers, they had flaps of skin that ran from their wrists to their ankles. Like bats? Attenborough said it made walking difficult. You can see in this clip how they walked on their wings when grounded.

I wish they hadn't called them monsters.


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1 comment:

Bix said...

He says they didn't fly like modern birds, they more glided, riding thermals. And one way they kept their large bodies airborne was through hollow bones. Also, they lost their heavy tails.