Pterosaur size


s included the largest flying animals ever to have lived. They are a clade of prehistoric archosaurian reptiles closely related to dinosaurs. Species among pterosaurs occupied several types of environments, which ranged from aquatic to forested. Below is a list that comprises the largest pterosaurs known as of 2016.
The smallest known pterosaur is Nemicolopterus with a wingspan of about. The specimen found may be a juvenile or a subadult, however, and adults may have been larger.

Pterosaurs with largest wingspan

This is a list of pterosaurs with estimated maximum wingspan of more than 5 metres :
  1. Quetzalcoatlus northropi
  2. Arambourgiania philadelphiae
  3. Hatzegopteryx thambema
  4. Cryodrakon boreas
  5. Undescribed specimen from Mongolia
  6. Undescribed specimen UNCUYO-LD 350
  7. Tropeognathus mesembrinus
  8. Geosternbergia maysei
  9. Coloborhynchus capito
  10. Moganopterus zhuiana
  11. Pteranodon longiceps
  12. Tupuxuara longicristatus
  13. Santanadactylus araripensis
  14. Cearadactylus atrox
  15. Caulkicephalus trimicrodon
  16. Istiodactylus latidens
  17. Lacusovagus magnificens
  18. Liaoningopterus gui
  19. Phosphatodraco mauritanicus
  20. Anhanguera sp.

    Speculation about pterosaur size and flight

Some species of pterosaurs grew to very large sizes and this has implications for their capacity for flight. Many pterosaurs were small but the largest had wingspans which exceeded. The largest of these are estimated to have weighed. For comparison, the wandering albatross has the largest wingspan of living birds at up to but usually weighs less than. This indicates that the largest pterosaurs may have had higher wing loadings than modern birds and this has implications for the manner in which pterosaur flight might differ from that of modern birds. The largest pterosaurs can fly up to.
Factors such as the warmer climate of the Mesozoic or higher levels of atmospheric oxygen have been proposed but it is now generally agreed that even the largest pterosaurs could have flown in today's skies. Partly, this is due to the presence of air sacs in their wing membranes, and that pterosaurs launched into flight using their front limbs in a quadrupedal stance similar to that of modern bats, a method faster and less energy taxing that the bipedal launching of modern birds.