How to ride a pterosaur, according to science - BBC REEL 

Its legs and feet are unsettlingly human.

Ah yes, the Quetzal, a pterosaur capable of flight while carrying a thick metal platform on its back of roughly 6 by 9 meters with a hut built on top of it.

Ah Quetzalcoatulus! My favourite pterasaur. Wingspan similar to that of a human carrying glider.

Habib and Witton's model of Quetzalcoatlus northropi's assumed 72kg of fat over the 200kg "empty" weight. That suggests that a sufficiently lean large pterosaur would be able to fly well enough with the extra weight of a reasonably light adult human, assuming some sort of riding position that doesn't add too much drag.

I loved this video so much, I have it bookmarked. The creativity was delightfully dizzying, and an excellent example of dry British humor. More, please!

I love the accurate downstroke-forward wing animations! Yes please!

what a great way to explain things! Super creative!

Like with horse racing, you'd have to be small and light to ride on a pterosaur. Jockeys maybe

So about the idea a child could ride; for one thing, there are humans who remain quite small as adults. Your average race horse jockey is much smaller and lighter than the man shown in the demos. But my main thought is that in some countries children ride race horses because they are smaller and lighter, so as long as we are fantasizing why not a courier service - similar perhaps to the Pony Express who also often hired children as smaller, lighter riders. So, I suppose the average adult couldn't ride off to North America, but they could send a letter.

This was both fun and interesting, thanks! 😄

When he pulls out the saddle 🤣 I love dragons and I can't believe the thought of humans riding pterosaurs never occured to me. I love the idea.

The map shows Indonesia twice. One in Europe and one in Asia but in reverse. 😜

Treat the saddle as if you're riding a race horse or a motorcycle to give pterosaur morespead.

This is amazing!! Very informative and very fun

Awesome and underrated video. Answered the questions I had about these unbelievable creatures.

Aw, that's too bad. Who hasn't dreamed of flying on a pterosaur (pteranodon or pterodactyl as they were known) before, especially riding them in a seated position? Who hadn't thought of this before Dinotopia or Dino Riders? *If* they were still around, and even the pteranodon/pterodactyl were strong enough, I would so ride one.

That was awesome!

A giant walking prehistoric mini airplane

Oh BBC, you bring us such whimsy.

Where's my Skybax riders at?

in love w/ the song anyone care to drop the title???

Aah.. good old time

Great imagination coming up with this video :D There's so many interesting videos on this channel!

Please, more videos like that, it's awesome!

Hey maybe in a million years we can do the same with bats and I’ll be name him Bob

How accurate is the quadrupedal launch simulation on that pterosaur? wouldnt it launch while also doing an exaggerated bob of the head like a horse does when it jumps? this is bothering me disproportionately

Song title? Thanks in advance

Need to know the song Tittle! Was it Swedish?

More saddles and soars!

Wow

Some very awkward laughs towards the end

cool

Whoa they flew like the RU-vid of Yosemite dinosaur caught on video. I wonder if Dr. Elizabeth has ever seen that video. This is fascinating.

Did.... Did it actually have people feet.

I think laying on top of it would work best

I dated one of these back in High School

Haha I thinking of ark XD

Wow she is so not into the whole pterosaur-riding fantasy. She sounded so underwhelmed when he mentioned those kids’ films 😂

Human feet

What the heck? I like it, but who the heck comes up with this?

Where are the feathers?

I honestly believe that these people literally make educated guess and I think they are completely wrong about the anatomy and how they flew.

0:02 why is modern day Indonesia where modern day India is

so DinoRiders was a lie

Gravity was less then.

..

Uhm.. Plane-sized??

I just, how 100% accurate are these. I know and understand that this is a palaeontologists job to guess; and guess being specifically used, cause humans have an extremely vast imagination. But aren’t all these dinosaur bones millions of years old. So, how can we structurally design pre-historic creatures. It’s like putting a circle into a square hole child’s toy.

I hope this narrative style goes away.

Damn. The scam to get funding just gets bigger and bigger.