Quetzalcoatlus-Carnegie Collection

Quetzalcoatlus by Carnegie Collection

Quetzalcoatlus was a huge pterosaur with a wingspan of up to 15 metres - the largest flying creature of all time. It is the last known pterosaur which survived to the very end of the Cretaceous period. Quetzalcoatlus was named after the Aztec\'s feathered-serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, by Douglas Lawson who first found the remains at Big Bend National Park in Texas.

Despite its huge size, the skeleton was lightly built and the whole animal probably weighed no more than 100 kilograms. Its neck was extremely long, its slender jaws were toothless and its head was topped by a long, bony crest. Unlike most other pterosaur fossils the Quetzalcoatlus remains have not been found in marine strata but in the sand and silt of a large river\'s flood plain and this has raised questions about how it lived.