The American Museum of Natural History here in New York just kick offan exhibitabout those ancient flying reptiles called pterosaurs . These rule of the sky happen to be the least empathize of prehistoric creatures , so we ’ve gotMark Norell , the curator in accusation of the paleontology section at the AMNH andmaster of the pearl room , here to answer all your burning question .
First , a little ground on the whole display , and pterosaurs themselves . You probably know them as pterodactyls , but that terminal figure is n’t technically correct . These fly animal were the first back - boned animate being to ever evolve to powered flight , and when they fly around this planet some 220 million years ago , they ranged in sizing from as small as sparrows to as large as F-16 scrapper planes . They also happen to be some of the rarest specimen in the paleontology realm . In fact , the AMNH — which has upwards of three million specimen — only has six cabinets full of pterosaur goodies . Wesaw how the museum was using 3D printingto aid replicate those for educational role and gear up for this display last year .
This exhibit is impressive for many ground , it ’s the biggest exhibition about these airborne reptiles ever rat , for example . It features uncommon fossils from all over the cosmos — Italy , Germany , China , the United States , the United Kingdom , and Brazil — as well as life - sized model and interactive destiny where you get to wing like these awesome creatures .
Norell says the timing of the exhibit is especially good :
This is an excellent prison term to do an exhibit on pterosaurs , largely because there have been more significant pterosaur fossil discoveries than ever before and more engineering science useable to help us study them . We ’re able to peer in spite of appearance of fossil bones using CT [ computed tomography ] scan imagery and mime their flight with biomechanic software . I think that in the next decennium , we ’re going to get it on double as much as we know now , if not more .
freshly off a dig in China , we ’ve got Norell here to suffice all your questions begin at 11 am EST . So get ’em fly .
The Q&A is now shut . Thanks so much for joining us !
dinosaurs
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