Fossil study gives wing to pterosaurs taking off like ducks from water

When taking flight from water surfaces, some archosaurs use a technique similar to ducks, Chinese University of Hong Kong researchers found.

In a study published in Scientific Reports, researchers said pterosaurs - an order of flying reptiles - possessed the ability to "water launch" as early as 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period.

Earlier studies had only found evidence of this ability up to 120 million years ago.

Laser images of a pterosaur fossil gave insights into how the creature was able to take off from the surface of water to become one of the earliest conquerors of the skies, researchers said. By analyzing the structure and makeup of a pterosaur, researchers found the creature could use not only its wings but also its feet to take flight.

The study focused on the Aurorazhdarcho, a small-sized pterosaur with a wingspan of some 40 centimeters.

"Like many other pterosaurs, it would need to take off from water to dive for food," researchers said.

How these creatures took flight from water remained an enduring mystery for decades. In a novel approach, Michael Pittman from CUHK's school of life sciences and his team used laser-fluorescence imaging to examine the soft tissue in a pterosaur fossil.

"The team used this data to perform aerodynamic modeling, showing that this pterosaur was capable of using its wings and feet to perform a 'quadrupedal water launch,' similar to how ducks fly today," Pittman said.

The images have since been displayed at Berlin's Museum fur Naturkunde.

Prior to this study, scientists believed only large pterosaurs had the ability to launch themselves from bodies of water.

These large pterosaurs include the Anhanguera - a pterosaur that lived in Brazil during the Cretaceous period.