Based on current findings, many pterosaurs, which lived on nearly every continent during the Mesozoic Era from approximately 248 million to 65 million years ago, possessed tweezer-like heads, body fur and incredibly large, varied head crests.

The recent discoveries, outlined in the current issue of Biologist, also suggest that pterosaurs walked on four limbs instead of two, as previously believed. Palaeontologists have struggled with this issue, due to the bat-like way the flying reptile's wings were attached to its fore-limbs and hind-limbs.

According to Darren Naish and Dave Martill, paleobiologists at the University of Portsmouth in England and authors of the Biologist paper, pterosaurs for most of the 20th century were stereotyped as awkward fliers with little wing movement.

Now they claim, "Prominent muscle attachment sites on the arm, shoulder and chest bones show that pterosaurs were active 'flappers.'"…