Question 1
1. The probability of finding three-dimensional pterosaur fossils anywhere is slim. ‘That was quite a find,’ he says. ‘Their bones are usually crushed to dust.’
It is rare to find a fossil of a pterosaur that clearly shows its skeleton.
Question 2
2. With the Anhanguera fossil as his model, Wilkinson began gradually reconstructing its skeletal structure in his Cambridge studio. Once the structure was complete, it inspired him to make a robot version as a way to understand the animal’s locomotion.
The reason for building the model was to prove pterosaurs flew for long distances.
Question 3
5. It emerged that the Anhanguera had an elongated limb called the pteroid. It had previously been thought the pteroid pointed towards the shoulder of the creature and supported a soft forewing in front of the arm. But if that were the case, the forewing would have been too small and ineffectual for flight. However, to the surprise of many scientists, fossils from the Araripe basin showed the pteroid possibly faced the opposite way, creating a much greater forewing that would have caught the air, working in the same way as the flaps on the wings of an aeroplane.
It is possible that pterosaur species achieved their wing size as a result of the pteroid.
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