isn't the idea of there being featherless flying reptiles kind of silly in retrospect?
>>4930129Hey if mammals and insects can do it, why not reptiles?
>>4930129The feathers pterodactyls had pycnofibers which is similar to the hair bats have, not really anything like what we think of as feathers.>>4930138See what I mentioned about bats above, but insects are an entirely different beast compared to flying vertebrates, you can't really compare them in any meaningful way.
>>4930129no but having them be 8 meters in height is.
>>4930129Did the feathers help them fly at all?
>>4930366yes. more surface area at the cost of virtually zero additional mass is a massive boon when it comes to flying. additionally, feathers being keratin growths means that birds don't need to pump as much blood as animals with fleshy wings like bats for example.
>>4930134Palaeontology will never recover
>>4930134kek classic
