paleoillustration: “Island Hateg”, by Sergey Krasovskiy (~atrox1) Hatzegopteryx, Balaur and some kind of unlucky nodosaurid “The authors estimated the size of Hatzegopteryx by comparing the humerus fragment, 236 mm (9.3 in) long, with that of Quetzalcoatlus, of which specimen TMM 41450-3 has a 544 mm (1 ft 9.4 in) long humerus. Observing that the Hatzegopteryx fragment presented less than half of the original bone, they established that it could possibly have been “slightly longer” than that of Quetzalcoatlus. They noted that the wing span of the latter had in 1981 been estimated at eleven to twelve metres, while earlier estimates had strongly exceeded this at fifteen to twenty metres. From this they concluded that an estimate of a twelve meter wing span for Hatzegopteryx was conservative “if its humerus was indeed somewhat longer than that of Q. northropi”. In 2003 they moderated the estimates to a close to twelve metres wing span and an over 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) skull length.[3] In 2010 Mark Witton e.a. stated that any appearance that the Hatzegopteryx humerus was bigger than TMM 41450-3 had been caused by a distortion of the bone after deposition and that the species thus likely had no larger wingspan than Quetzalcoatlus, today generally estimated at ten to eleven metres.[4]” Wikipedia.

paleoillustration:

“Island Hateg”, by Sergey Krasovskiy (~atrox1)

Hatzegopteryx, Balaur and some kind of unlucky nodosaurid

“The authors estimated the size of Hatzegopteryx by comparing the humerus fragment, 236 mm (9.3 in) long, with that of Quetzalcoatlus, of which specimen TMM 41450-3 has a 544 mm (1 ft 9.4 in) long humerus. Observing that the Hatzegopteryx fragment presented less than half of the original bone, they established that it could possibly have been “slightly longer” than that of Quetzalcoatlus. They noted that the wing span of the latter had in 1981 been estimated at eleven to twelve metres, while earlier estimates had strongly exceeded this at fifteen to twenty metres. From this they concluded that an estimate of a twelve meter wing span for Hatzegopteryx was conservative “if its humerus was indeed somewhat longer than that of Q. northropi”. In 2003 they moderated the estimates to a close to twelve metres wing span and an over 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) skull length.[3] In 2010 Mark Witton e.a. stated that any appearance that the Hatzegopteryx humerus was bigger than TMM 41450-3 had been caused by a distortion of the bone after deposition and that the species thus likely had no larger wingspan than Quetzalcoatlus, today generally estimated at ten to eleven metres.[4]” Wikipedia.