[no subject]

[David Peters <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>]

> Q. sp. has a rostrum that is  wider than tall, resembling the end  
> of a yard stick.

Only at the utmost tip.  The tip of the lower mandible is rounded  
when seen from above or below, and thin and slightly turned down at  
the very tip.  The lower mandible is about a half inch shorter than  
the upper.  It rapidly becomes taller than wide as you move aft, and  
when you consider the fineness ratio created by the angle that it  
would enter the water, it is very near the minimum drag shape.

>> Granted, but those first few inches could be improved for  
skimming, like the rostrum of Azhdarcho and Pteranodon. I understand  
that the rest of the beak is built with a ventral crest for strength,  
but that's just using minimal materials for maximum strength. You can  
make a barn door fly, given enough horsepower, but there are better  
ways.


> Yes it is crushed, but it is crushed dorso-ventrally, which is a  
> highly unlikely crushing angle for a laterally compressed rostrum.   
> And that transversely straight tip is really the end of the rostrum.

Dave, are you referring to the photo seen near the bottom of page 144  
of Wellnhofer?  If so, that's a tapejarid from further down in the  
formation. It is not a Quetzalcoatlus.  It was misidentified in  
Wellnhofer.

>> No, I am referring to the photo of Q sp. I took in Austin. Also  
seen in Kellner and Langston, JVP and on pterosaurinfo.com.



> And everyone knows that pushing a  yardstick width-wise through  
> water, as if it was attached to a  skimmer) is not the most  
> efficient way to 'knife' through the water.

I'm sorry, I don't know that.....  :-)
More seriously, it depends upon what you want to do with the water  
than you intercept.

>>  I'll let that one slide.


> But it does make a good mud probe.

Yes, it could do that, though there are other shapes that would work  
better for probing.

>>> But they have to follow phylogenetic pathways and this is how Q.  
got his long nose, with a tip'o the hat to Rudyard Kipling.