Pterry the Pterodactyl

thingiverse

Meet Ptery the Pterodactyl. Pterodactyls, also known as Pterodactylus antiquus, are the most famous members of the Pterosaur order of flying Jurassic reptiles - mostly because early in dinosaur research, every flying reptile got dubbed a "pterodactyl" until it got assigned a more proper classification. Today, the Pteranodon genus of Pterosaurs is more commonly found in books and TV, and while they are relatives, pteranodons and pterodactyls are not the same species. One major difference is that pteranodons tend to have large, bony crests on the backs of their skulls, while pterodactylus antiquus's crests were made primarily of soft tissue, not bone. Despite being included in many books on dinosaurs and the central family in the popular "Dinosaur Train" TV show, pterosaurs were not dinosaurs. But what is a dinosaur? Whatever paleontologists define "dinosaur" to mean, of course. The current definition has something to do with the shape and function of various foot, ankle, and leg bones, and the entire pterosaur order split off from the ancestors of dinosaurs long before those particular bones assumed the form found in dinosaurs. The definition is kind of arbitrary, I admit, but scientists decided they need to draw a line somewhere, and that line includes T-Rex and Stegosaurus but not Pterodactyls. Many other animals that lived long ago - like sharks and Dimetrodons - also weren't dinosaurs. "Pterodactyl" means "winged finger" (because of their very long finger bones that probably held up wings) and most of their skeletons hail from Bavaria, Germany. They lived about 150.8-148.5 million years ago, ate fish, and had a wingspan of about 3.5 feet or one meter. They had interesting bones in their eyes called sclerotic rings, which Wikipedia says might have helped them be active during the day. This sculpture was made based on photos of Pterodactyl skeletons. Unfortunately, I did not find much showing the overall width of the skull, so I made my best guess there. I hope you enjoy Ptery. Please let me know if you have any problems with him or if he can be improved in any way. BTW, when I open the file in Sculptris, for some reason it opens inside Pterry's head and I have to zoom out a bit before I can see him properly. I don't know how to fix this, sorry.