The excavation of fossils in most countries is strictly regulated so that anything that is dug up is the property of governmental authorities. A few countries (like our own) allow private excavation and collection if it is done on private land. As far as how i feel about this, i am pretty pragmatic and i can…

believe it or not i don't watch paleontology movies. so I am not the person to ask. That said some of the preview animations for the BBC's Walking with dinosaurs" looks pretty good.

some- different pterosaurs had different shaped wings (just like living birds- compare an albatross with a pigeon). Fortunately we do have some great material like the dark wing on display in the exhibit and some of the chinese material which preserves impressions of the soft tissue and shows us exactly the shape…

probably some of the new bizarre pterosaurs from Northeastern China. Sort of the answer i gave above- just how diverse were pterosaurs.

mostly their diversity. They make such poor fossils that during their approximately 170 million year history we only know about 150 different species. The vast majority of these are from 5 places in the world that all preserve pretty similar environments. If we compare pterosaur to birds (of which there are at least…

we always think that one is the most awesome until we find an even more awesome one!

I disagree. When star trek first appeared it was capitalizing on interest in the manned space program. Jurassic Park was also capitalizing on a renaissance in dinosaur paleontology that happened about five years before the movie.

birds are reptiles and they are warm blooded so not all reptiles are cold blooded. While we can not directly take the temperature of a pterosaur their is a lot of evidence suggesting that they were warm blooded. Things like fast growth, active metabolisms, and a fuzzy body covering all suggest that these animals…

they are misunderstood because people think that they are flying dinosaurs, or are related to birds. In fact they are the not dinosaurs and not related to birds. The architecture of their wing is totally different than those of either birds or bats. Thet are so rare as fossils because their skeletons are so…

There is not really a set protocol- it is all based on personal relationships and working with the academy of sciences in each country. In general I work with chinese colleagues (many of whom were my former students). All of the specimens of course remain in China as property of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

only saw the first one—- it was ok

not only were their bones hollow they were even thinner walled than those in modern birds.

The exhibit is open until January 4 2015. come see it!

yes. An early idea was that they used their wings to propel themselves through the water. But now we can look at their wings and model their flight in wind tunnels. We also have track ways that show them landing

In a sense they didn't- because birds are a kind of dinosaur and dinosaurs are a kind of reptile- so birds really are reptiles. As far as pterosaurs go, they became extinct at the same time as the non bird dinosaurs.

yes of course, one of the more notable ones is that for years people thought that pterosaurs were bipedal and walked like birds with their wings tucked on their sides. The trackways that have been identified conclusively show that they were quadrupeds walking on their feet and knuckles

pterodactyl is a kind of pterosaur. The confusion stems from the fact that the first of these animals to be described was the species Pterodactylus, so early on they became known as pterodactyls. Now with lots more species known we refer to them as pterosaurs to encompass the entire diversity

I don't really know what drives the publics fascination with dinosaurs, but people certainly are interested. The dinosaur halls are our most highly attended- and people just keep coming back.

It has about the same relevant to what i do as star trek does to neil tyson's. It is not science it is entertainment