BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Flying reptile mystery ‘solved’
UK scientists say they have solved the mystery of why prehistoric flying reptiles grew crests on their heads.
A rare skull specimen found in Brazil shows the crest appeared at puberty, suggesting it was used to attract attention from the opposite sex.
University of Portsmouth experts say pterosaurs, which ruled the air during the time of the dinosaurs, flaunted their headgear in sexual displays.
This trick still works. (See below)
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Correlation is not causation, nor should you plot a line based on only a single point. “Science” is not the word…
Worked for me… since the hat-wearer was off-screen as I scrolled down to the start of the post.
Didn’t need the usual email ploy of “Scroll down” past a lot of white-space to get the punchline.
Does this mean I can’t use the five-head joke anymore?
Man… I wish I had a boney growth on my forhead.
#1, tell that to John Stossel
I’m not convinced. The depictions don’t show these pterosaurs having tail feathers (like birds) or tail fins (like aeroplanes). Could the crest be a kind of stabilizing device? Why then, I hear you ask, did it only develop at puberty? Answer: if these creatures mated in the air, greater flying stability would be needed at that time!
I can’t recall what program it was, but someone tried building a model of these creatures with a large crest and no tail structure to see if the crest could be used to stabilize flight. It seemed to work. Maybe it was a multi-purpose tool.