Up, Up and Away Through the Clouds

About this drawing

A flying pterodactyl was quite a sight, but how did a reptile get into the sky? Pterosaurs were the first animals with backbones to truly fly. They did it long before birds or bats came along.

Their wings had no feathers. They were made of thin, tough skin. That skin stretched from the body out to one very long finger on each hand. Imagine if your pinky finger were longer than your whole arm! That's how a pterosaur wing worked.

To fly, you need to be light. Their bones were hollow, with very thin walls. They also had strong chest muscles to flap those wings. Scientists think they took off by pushing up with their arms, like a giant push-up jump. Then they started to flap.

Once it was up high, a pterodactyl could glide on the wind without getting tired, just like a seagull at the beach. Flying helped it find food, such as small fish near the shore. It also helped it get away from hungry animals. These flyers lived about 150 million years ago. Today we know them from fossils, and some fossils even show the shape of the wings.

• pterosaurs
• flying reptiles
• clouds
• preschool