Bald or Feathered?
For a long time, people thought pterosaurs—the giant flying reptiles that lived with dinosaurs—were bald like a lizard. Then, a few years ago, some scientists found fossils that looked like they had tiny feathers! But in 2020, a new study looked closer. It turns out those "feathers" might actually be tiny fibers from inside the pterosaur's wings that unraveled after they died. So, were they fuzzy or bald? The mystery of the flying reptile continues!
Wee Ones
A pterosaur has 2 huge wings and 1 long beak. How many of these body parts are you counting altogether?
Little Kids
If 5 pterosaurs are flying in a line and each one has 2 wings, how many wings are there in total? Let's skip count by 2s to find out!
Big Kids
If a pterosaur's wing fiber is 5 centimetres long and 1 centimetre wide, what is the area of that fiber in square centimetres? If a fossil has 10 of these fibers, what is their total area?
The Sky's the Limit
A graph shows that as pterosaur fossils get older, they are less likely to have preserved wing fibers. Is this a positive or negative trend? If we found 50 fossils from 100 million years ago and only 5 had fibers, what percentage is that?