00:03birds achieve flight because they have hollow bones and don't weigh much but back in prehistoric
00:08times the pterosaurs ruled the skies these creatures lived some 215 million years ago
00:14and could weigh up to 550 pounds so how did they ever achieve flight well that's a question that
00:20has baffled scientists for decades but now they might finally have an answer we now know that
00:25pterosaurs did in fact have feathers but it was their tail veins that could have properly allowed
00:29them to be the first sky-faring creatures ever paleontologists who were not involved in this
00:34study concur that this would make sense with one of them writing that the vein was stiffened by a
00:39rod-like lattice structure which offered greater stabilization and control during flight what's
00:44more the researchers found that the tail vein of early pterosaurs developed from a single contiguous
00:49structure rather than a combined structure of scales and feather-like hide pterosaurs also had hollow
00:54bones like birds but that's also why understanding them has taken researchers so long it turns out
00:59the delicate bones are more prone to degradation and disappearing to the ravages of time
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