I think that seeing a pterosaur like Quetzalcoatlus actually take off would have to be one of the most impressive sights in the animal kingdom. And to see something that’s 20 feet tall suddenly spring into the air and fly away is outside the bounds of human experience. 

 

For a giant like Quetzalcoatlus, flight control is everything. This flying reptile has one of the most advanced autopilot systems in natural history. 

 

Imagine just for a moment that you’re an animal with the wingspan of a small sailplane and you are turning yourself 90 degrees. That’s not an easy maneuver to pull. Human pilots, for example, rely on instruments in their cockpit in order to do things like that. Quetzalcoatlus has to have those instruments built in. 

 

A Quetzalcoatlus wing is covered with millions of tiny hairlike sensors. These microscopically small biomemory devices collect information, then send signals to the brain. 

 

Their wing wasn’t just an aerodynamic organ. It was also a gigantic sensory organ capturing all kinds of aerodynamically relevant information about things like air speed, tension in particular parts of the wing. 

 

This data travels from the wing to the brain. Then in a split second, a Quetzalcoatlus makes minute adjustments to its wing shape and body position. Proof of this advanced biotechnology is found in the flocculus, the area of the brain devoted to flight control. It’s three times larger than in any bird today. 

 

There’s a huge amount of math going on in the brain as it’s making these subconscious calculations. And what’s key is that’s happening all the time. It can never stop.