Pterosaurs were an ancient group of winged reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs. Many pterosaurs were very large, some as large as a giraffe and with a wingspan of over 12 meters. Paleontologists have long wondered whether large pterosaurs were capable of powered flight (flying by flapping their wings) or whether they were able only to glide. Several arguments have been made against powered flight.
Doubters point out that since modern reptiles are cold-blooded, ancient reptiles such as pterosaurs were probably cold-blooded as well. Cold-blooded animals typically have a slow metabolism and are unable to produce a lot of energy. Powered flight is an activity requiring a lot of energy, which is why all modern vertebrates that fly are warm-blooded, not cold-blooded. It seemed unlikely that pterosaurs would have been able to generate the energy needed to fly.
Second, there is a limit to the weight of animals that can be kept airborne by powered flight. Pterosaurs that were as large as a giraffe were probably so heavy that they would not have been able to flap their wings fast enough to stay aloft for any length of time.
Third, all animals with powered flight are able to take off from the ground. For example, birds take off by jumping from their legs or running to gain speed and then jumping. But these methods would not have worked for large pterosaurs. Large pterosaurs would have needed big, powerful muscles in their back legs to launch themselves into the air, and we know from fossilized bones that their back leg muscles were too small and weak to allow the pterosaurs to run fast enough or jump high enough to launch themselves into the air.
The reading and lecture are both about whether Pterosaurs had the capability of powered flight or not. The author of the reading feels that Pterosaurs did not have the capacity of powered flight and provides reasons for his or her belief. The lecturer challenges the claim made by providing evidence against the reasons cited by the author. She is of the opinion that Pterosaurs may have the capability of flight and the reasons provided by the author are faulty.
To begin with, the author argues that ancient reptiles like Pterosaurs might have been cold blooded animal just like the modern cold blooded animals. The article mentions that cold-blooded animals usually have slower metabolism and as a result they do not generate much energy. But powered flight requires a lot of energy and needed faster metabolism common in modern flying warm-blooded animals. The lecturer challenges this specific argument. She said that recent fossil discovery has led scientists to believe that Pterasaurs had dense hair like covering which is typical of worm-blooded animal as they need to keep their body worm in cold temperatures. Additionally, she mentions that it is possible for Pterasaurs to have a metabolism similar to that of warm-blooded animal and thereby it could generate enough energy for powered flight.
Secondly, the writer suggests that as Pterasaurs had the size similar to that of modern giraffe they would have been very heavy. In the article, it is said that because of their enormous weight, Pterasaurs might not have been able to flap their wings quickly enough to fly for any amount of time. The lecturer refutes this reason by mentioning that Pterasaurs might have light hollow bone structure. She elaborates on this by bringing up the point that hollow light bone structure would have given Pterasaurs lighter weight and the weight might have been low enough to facilitate powered flight.
Finally, the author posits that all animals that have powered flight are capable of taking off the ground and they achieve this by jumping from their legs or by running to gain speed followed by jumping. Moreover, in the article it is stated that, Pterasaurs might not have been capable of this because their back legs muscles were too small and weak and large Pterasaurs would have needed big, powerful muscles in their back legs. In contrast, the lecturer's position is that birds like bats can take off using all four of their legs. She notes that, Pterasaurs might have used all four of their legs to jump off and fly.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-12-06 | marii.r67 | 80 | view |
| 2019-11-13 | shirley5001 | 80 | view |
| 2019-11-13 | shirley5001 | 80 | view |
| 2019-11-03 | Seema Modak | 78 | view |
| 2019-11-03 | Seema Modak | 78 | view |
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- Pterosaurs were an ancient group of winged reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs. Many pterosaurs were very large, some as large as a giraffe and with a wingspan of over 12 meters. Paleontologists have long wondered whether large pterosaurs were cap 73
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 240, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...provides reasons for his or her belief. The lecturer challenges the claim made by p...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, in contrast, as a result, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 10.4613686534 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 5.04856512141 257% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 15.0 7.30242825607 205% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 19.0 12.0772626932 157% => OK
Pronoun: 46.0 22.412803532 205% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 53.0 30.3222958057 175% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2121.0 1373.03311258 154% => OK
No of words: 422.0 270.72406181 156% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.02606635071 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.53239876712 4.04702891845 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.44507624313 2.5805825403 95% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 145.348785872 136% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.46682464455 0.540411800872 86% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 645.3 419.366225166 154% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.7223515714 49.2860985944 97% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.833333333 110.228320801 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.4444444444 21.698381199 108% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.22222222222 7.06452816374 74% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.27373068433 140% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.110496401299 0.272083759551 41% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0394588782867 0.0996497079465 40% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.039931758817 0.0662205650399 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0680012315398 0.162205337803 42% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0223937195394 0.0443174109184 51% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.0 13.3589403974 105% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 53.8541721854 105% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.19 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.92 8.42419426049 94% => OK
difficult_words: 84.0 63.6247240618 132% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.498013245 107% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.