The Largest Animal To Ever Fly Wasn't Quetzalcoatlus

66 million years ago the earth was experiencing the final days of the Mesozoic and more specifically the end of the late Cretaceous at the time Titanic animals were widespread throughout the world and wherever you looked a behemoth could be found on land huge theropods and sods ruled while in the waters massive mosasaurus dominated with ease but even the skies during these prehistoric times belong to the Dominion of giants as their crti was also home to the most infamous family of terrasaurs the world has ever seen the as darkid this was a group of terrasaurs that were characterized by their extremely long necks and legs and were well known for having reached massive sizes and of all the members to have come and gone by far the most well-known and feared was quetzel katlas a huge parasaur that ruled the Skies of North America and was so magnificent it was named after the feathered serpent god of the Aztec it is known by many as also being the largest animal to ever fly however in reality there was actually another as darkened member that not only lived at the exact same time as the quetzel katlas but was likely even larger in size perhaps making it the largest animal to ever fly period this was the hatter this huge parasaur was discovered in the 1970s when two large pieces of a skull and humoris were found in Romania by a student LED dig Team the bones were so big that at first the paleontologists who studied them believed the remains must have belonged to a new type of therapod but soon realized based on the structure and shape of the bones that in reality it was a monstrous terasa although despite its clearly impressive size this terrasaur went fairly unnoticed for a long time following its Discovery and was not even named until more than 30 years later in 200 2 when it was finally dubbed hatk goter thima the hatk Basin Wing monster with hatk portion being a reference to the prehistoric hattig Island which this Mighty terrasaur once inhabited meanwhile the monster part of its name was a nod to its absolutely absurd size with paleontologists currently estimating that matured individuals possessed comparable wingspan to that of the quetzel katlas which is generally believed to have been up to 11 M or 36 ft in length making it as wide as the plain Cessna 172 however some think that the Hat a goter was possibly even a bit larger than this as its humorous was noted to be longer than that of the quel katlas leading to a higher estimated limit of 12 M or 39 ft the largest of any known terasa or bird and even if it didn't achieve this larger wingspan the hatag opter still outclassed all other parasaurs in size as it was built like a tank being freakishly robust in comparison to its relatives while standing at a remarkable height of 5 m or 16. 5 ft similar to the height of a giraffe this height wingspan and robustness has led to the assumption that it weighed quite a bit more than other giant parasaurs including the quel katlas although its exact weight has never been formally estimated thanks to its ridiculous size the hatag opter isn't only usually considered to be the heaviest and thus the biggest terrasaur ever but also the biggest terrestrial Predator to have been present in Europe 66 million years ago and strangely enough its size was mostly due to the place it called home as at the time of its existence Europe was an expansive archipelago consisting of small medium and large sized Islands one of which was hotk Island it's thought to have been comparable in size to present day Ireland and was separated from Land by long stretches of deep ocean in every direction for over 300 km or 190 Mi making it extremely isolated there was also no giant therapods roaming the island at the time and very few Predators overall allowing the hatop dcks to fill the role of top predator and grow immensely big with virtually no competition or threat from others and it didn't simply get a large body on this island as it also developed a freakishly giant skull that measured 2. 5 M or 8 ft and 2 in in length making it one of the biggest skulls of any non-marine animal ever on top of this it was unique in that unlike most terrasaurus skulls that possessed a Grassle build the hattig opter had a head that was exceptionally robust and sturdy while containing large ridges suggesting that there was a lot of muscle attached to it in real life additionally its neck was surprisingly strong as well as it sported a short and Broad design with studies finding it to have been about half the length of what would have been expected for a terasa this sturdy neck was further supported by ridges that once again served as muscle attachment points granting it a seriously high level of durability when maneuvering his Titanic skull with some research finding that this Frankenstein neck could withstand forces up to 10 times its total body weight this unusual strength coupled with the proportions of its skull and jaw has led paleontologists to suspect that this terrasaur was on a completely different level than others when it came to killing likely praying on animals that were too large to fully swallow in this case possibly dinosaurs because while hatk Island played a role in making the hatag opter a giant it also played a role in downsizing others including dinosaurs which were limited in growth due to the restricted amount of resources available on land this led to the presence of numerous dwarf d dinosaurs including relatively tiny hadrosaurs and even titanosaurs some of the dwarf dinosaurs that called This Island home were likely victims of this nightmarish Predator as juveniles or even adults with its giant goal likely being its main weapon of choice it's believed to have killed larger prey by stabbing or bludgeoning the poor animal to death and of course non- dinosaurs would have been targets as well as paleontologists typically believe that the hatag opter was a terrestrial generalist forager meaning it spent most of its time on land hunting anything that came its way that wasn't too much of a challenge while land seems to be where the hatag opter was found most of its life this Behemoth was still very much capable of flight AS demonstrated by its wings which were fully developed and comparable in structure to the wings of other known flying parasaurs indicating that its size did not result in it being flightless yet because it did seem so stocky and clunky in appearance pent olist do think that it must have had a way of lightening the weight of its Mammoth skull in order to become airborne with the general belief being that the internal structure of its skull was the answer as the bones appear to have contained many pits and hollow points making it less Hefty than it appeared but still strong and flexible on top of this the wings also contained the same pits and hollow points which is unique amongst herur and has been likened to the structure of expanded polystyrene also Al known in the US as styrofoam this no doubt aided it in taking flight yet getting into the air even with a more efficient build was still not an easy task and to achieve this feat the hatag opter may have had to launch itself off the ground by essentially jumping with its limbs once in the air the hatop was Once Upon a Time believed to have been an excellent flyer capable of traversing large amounts of distances without the need for brakes due to its large wingspan however in recent times a new study has challenged this conjecture instead claiming that due to its body size it probably could not fly for long distances and was instead only good at flying short periods before requiring a break it's also now believed that the hats aapter would have primarily used its flying capabilities to locate hunting spots and Traverse the island it ruled and of course being able to get around hatk Island in an efficient manner was actually an overpowered tool for the already biggest predator around found as hatk Island was dominated by a woodland forest-like ecosystem that made movement quite restricted for some of the larger animals along with thick brush the island was also home to large amounts of rivers and streams which along with Lush vegetation resulted in an array of Life which unfortunately would have been subjected to the terror of the hatag opter as mentioned some of these inhabitants included multiple dwarf dinosaurs such as the bow magyarosaurus paludis telmatosaurus zalmoxis struthiosaurus brisi elop hepes dioris and unidentified dinosaurs including an unnamed therapod meanwhile non- dinosaurs came in the form of the aladas suus duradon isodon kayanin barbin lovoy Hina beesus albaner Paton EO disco glossus and an named snake even other theasaurus called This Island home with so far three separate as dark kads being found that rang from 3.

5 M or 11. 5 ft to 5 m or 16.