Vertebrates take the air
Pterosaurs fly 50 million years before birds
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Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs but close relatives, and their solution to flight differs completely from a bird's: one finger instead of feathers, and a wing membrane with internal fibres giving stiffness without weight. The bones were hollow and pneumatised, connected to air sacs. Quetzalcoatlus of the late Cretaceous stood as tall as a giraffe on the ground. They vanished entirely at the impact 66 million years ago while birds survived — why is unresolved, but body size appears to have been decisive.
For children
Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to fly. The wing was a skin membrane stretched from the body to one enormously elongated finger. The largest had wingspans of ten or eleven metres — as wide as a small aircraft.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org