The largest flying reptile ever to have lived, Quetzalcoatlus northropi—Q for short, soars through the ROM with a jaw-dropping wingspan of 12 metres (40 feet). At this size it’s hard to imagine how it ever got off the ground, but its hollow bones were almost paper-thin. Quetzalcoatlus could likely take off under its own power!
Pterosaurs, also referred to as pterodactyls, lived during the Mesozoic Era ( 220 to 65 million years ago). Quetzalcoatlus (pronounced kwet-zel-KWAT-lus) would have flown over the heads of dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops in the Late Cretaceous period (75 to 65 million years ago).
It was named after the Aztec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, the powerful creator and protector of our modern world. Its neck was extremely long with slender toothless jaws and a head topped by a short bony crest.
Quetzalcoatlus probably spent much of its time soaring on air currents as opposed to flapping its wings. The lifestyle of giant pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus is uncertain, but it likely hunted small prey like a heron or scavenged on the carcasses of dead dinosaurs.
