On the coast of prehistoric seas and lakes, pterosaurs roamed the sky. They were feather creatures of large size, from pigeons to planes, and were the first vertebrates known to be able to fly. And for millions of years they had a long tail that ended with a prominent flap of skin called vanes.
Paleontologists have long wondered about this strange appendage and its purpose. A team of scientists using laser scanning technology has suggested that they will discover new structures in the fossils of four pterosaurus that help keep the vanes stiff, helping them fly in.
The study, published in the journal Elife in December, states, “even fossils we've known and studied for hundreds of years may show new technologies to see them.” He says that. Lead author of the British Lime Regis Museum and the papers.
Also, professional artist Dr. Jagielska got caught up in research after Michael Pittman, a paleontologist at Hong Kong's China University, approached her about explaining children's books. They teamed up to examine the palace fossils in their British and Scottish collections.
After investigating over 100 pterosaur specimens, scientists chose four from the Ranfer Hinquis species, which often had diamond-shaped kitel-like tail vanes for follow-up of laser-stimulated fluorescence. . Dr. Pittman and Thomas G. Kay are directors of the Scientific Progress Foundation and authors of the study, exploring relics of the dinosaur era and promoting techniques for archaeological investigations.
Laser methods utilize a method in which several minerals shine when the electrons absorb and then re-emit the light. As the laser passes through the fossil, long-term exposure digital photos capture the hidden features that stand out
The first Miyashita specimen photographs they scanned showed the lattice structure of the tail feathers. For Dr. Pittman, this was a “Ta-da moment.”
“It looks like a kind of waffle fly,” he said. “But that structure in engineering is a reinforced structure.”
The “struts” on this lattice could have been beneficial for flights, Dr. Jagielska said. They “treat when you have air that resembles a ship's sails and it probably reduces flapping,” she said.
Scientists say that the main function of the vanes may still have been a social display, just as the wings of the peacock's tail are signals that attract peers. In that vein, Bain had a prominent colour and pattern that was probably not preserved in the fossil record, Dr. Pittman said.
Still, like modern signs, the “display surface” needed a support structure. The study was the first to reveal, Dr. Pittman said. Michael Habib, pterosaur flight expert and research author at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that if Vern were freely covered, it would be “very expensive and at the same time useless as a visual signal.” I stated.
The results are a major advancement in palace research, said Andrea Cow, an Italian paleontologist who was not involved in the study. He noted that one of the Pterosaur fossils does not show soft tissue details using other techniques, but that laser fluorescence elicited them.
“Suppose the rarity of soft tissue remains in paleontology, even just one new fossil makes a difference,” he said.
Scott, a paleontologist at the University of Charleston in South Carolina who was not involved in the study, said: Given that different pterosaurs had feathers of different sizes, more studies could also indicate whether their variations should optimize flights or “fashion.”
Dr. Jagielska wants to explore why the long tail of feathered feathers disappeared by the beginning of the Cretaceous period, about 146 million years ago. Additionally, laser scanning may bring out other properties that are important for the flight of the Pterosaur. A better understanding of their anatomy can even stimulate vehicles in the air one day.
“If they're efficient enough to live for hundreds of millions of years, they're probably doing something right,” Dr. Jagielska said.
