Why fly when you can walk? That's what the winged azhdarchid dinosaur apparently figured while on the hunt back in the day—65 million to 230 million years ago. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth in England report in PLoS ONE that the dinos were more likely to stalk prey on foot than by flying over and swooping in for the kill. Paleontologists generally believe that pterosaurs (the larger category of dinosaur to which the azhdarchid belongs) lived as gull- or pelican-like predators that flew over lakes and oceans, plucking fish from the water. But a study of azhdarchid anatomy, footprints and the distribution of their fossils indicates one size does not fit all in the case of flying ...

Why fly when you can walk? That's what the winged azhdarchid dinosaur apparently figured while on the hunt back in the day—65 million to 230 million years ago. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth in England report in PLoS ONE that the dinos were more likely to stalk prey on foot than by flying over and swooping in for the kill. Paleontologists generally believe that pterosaurs (the larger category of dinosaur to which the azhdarchid belongs) lived as gull- or pelican-like predators that flew over lakes and oceans, plucking fish from the water. But a study of azhdarchid anatomy, footprints and the distribution of their fossils indicates one size does not fit all in the case of flying reptiles. In fact, azhdarchids—which could grow as tall as giraffes, with wingspans of up to 33 feet (10 meters)—were probably better at walking than any other pterosaurs, because they had long limbs and skulls well suited for picking up small animals and other food from the ground. Azhdarchids' closest relatives today: large ground-feeding birds such as ground-hornbills and storks.