LONDON ¨C For most of us, ¡°pterodactyls¡± are large, vicious and ugly gargoyles with leathery wings and jaws lined with savage teeth, the sort of disreputable brutes we find in Arthur Conan Doyle¡¯s ¡°The Lost World,¡± the ¡°Jurassic Park¡± franchise ¡ª even a recent episode of ¡°Doctor Who.¡±
Such works suggest we should think ourselves lucky that these flying reptiles were confined to the Mesozoic era (250 million to 65 million years ago) and that they aren¡¯t alive today to menace mankind.
Of course, the popular understanding of these fossil animals and their world is only a distant echo of reality, a construct of poor scientific communication, melodramatic media and romantic storytellers.
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