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Was pterodactyl a bird?

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Ah, the mighty pterodactyl. Not quite a bird. Not quite an animal. Pterodactyls do not exist. Unless somebody is out to trigger someone, if you say 'pterodactyl' you mean pterosaur. As seen in the diagram above, pterosaurs split off dinosaurimorpha way before birds came about. read more

Like birds, the pterosaurs had hollow bonesand few flexible joints in wings and ankles. However, a bird'swings use feathers rather than a membrane as was the case with thepterosaurs. And the fourth finger of the pterosaur forelimbextended to support the wing membrane. In the bird the secondfinger is the principal support of the wing. read more

Modern birds didn't descend from pterosaurs; birds' ancestors were small, feathered, terrestrial dinosaurs. The first pterosaur discovered was Pterodactylus, identified in 1784 by Italian scientist Cosimo Collini, who thought he had discovered a marine creature that used its wings as paddles. read more

Pterodactylus was a pterosaur, so not a dinosaur or a bird, but a flying reptile. read more

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