Re: Quetzalcoatlus

["James R. Cunningham" <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

David and Matt, I just spotted the following post in the Dec 5th
archives:

>>Also, does the trailing edge comment imply that the wing attaches high
on the leg rather than below the knee as shown, or should there simply
be more curvature in the trailing edge?

Maybe it shouldn't attach to the legs at all. There's evidence it
attached to the tail and not the legs in Pteranodon. Don't know what the
current opinion is.<<

It's highly unlikely that it attached to the tail, since that would make
pitch and yaw control very difficult (read 'perhaps impossible'), and it
would also possibly place the tail in more compression than it was
capable of handling due to the membrane stress distribution near the
wing root.  Based on reinforcing patterns in the pelvis, it may have
attached at the ileum and pelvis; it is unlikely that it attached at the
thigh (though I'm not prepared yet to say that's impossible).  It is
extremely unlikely that it attached below the knee.  Several aspects of
John's National Geographic illustrations were compromises based on
conflicting comments by differing technical advisors.  John commented to
me that he was afraid he'd just succeeded in making everone mad.  Not me
though -- I think the illustrations were lovely, though I don't agree
with everything in them.

All the best,

JimC