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 seems 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 article and the lecture both deal with whether pterosaurs can fly by flapping their wings. Whilst the author claims that pterosaurs were not capable of powered flight for three reasons, the lecturer contradicts his arguments respectively.
First, according to the reading, as ancient reptiles pterosaurs are likely to be cold blooded, and they cannot generate enough energy for powered flight. In contrast, the professor argues that evidence has shown that pterosaurs have hair around their body, indicating that they are probably warm-blooded. Therefore, they are able to produce enough energy required for flight.
Second, the writer states that pterosaurs can not flap their wings fast enough to fly due to their heavy weight. However, the lecturer questions this argument by saying that pterosaurs actually have very light body weight because of their unique hollow bones, which are different from commonly known bones from other animals. Thus, weight is not a problem for them to fly.
Last but not least, the author posits that pterosaurs cannot take off from the ground because of their small and weak back leg muscles. As opposed to the writer, the speaker points out that unlike birds which only have two legs, pterosaurs have four legs which allow them to run very fast and jump fairly high. In short, they have no trouble in taking off from the ground.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 100, Rule ID: HEAVY_WEIGHT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'heavyweight'?
Suggestion: heavyweight
...r wings fast enough to fly due to their heavy weight. However, the lecturer questions this a...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, however, if, second, so, therefore, thus, in contrast, in short
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 7.0 10.4613686534 67% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 25.0 30.3222958057 82% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1153.0 1373.03311258 84% => OK
No of words: 224.0 270.72406181 83% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.14732142857 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.86867284054 4.04702891845 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.31168542603 2.5805825403 90% => OK
Unique words: 140.0 145.348785872 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.625 0.540411800872 116% => OK
syllable_count: 330.3 419.366225166 79% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.0036261097 49.2860985944 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.818181818 110.228320801 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.3636363636 21.698381199 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.72727272727 7.06452816374 109% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.183239209064 0.272083759551 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0682594780261 0.0996497079465 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0436988089726 0.0662205650399 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.113899646781 0.162205337803 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0395047344867 0.0443174109184 89% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 13.3589403974 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.59 12.2367328918 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.08 8.42419426049 96% => OK
difficult_words: 49.0 63.6247240618 77% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 100, Rule ID: HEAVY_WEIGHT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'heavyweight'?
Suggestion: heavyweight
...r wings fast enough to fly due to their heavy weight. However, the lecturer questions this a...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, however, if, second, so, therefore, thus, in contrast, in short
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 7.0 10.4613686534 67% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 25.0 30.3222958057 82% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1153.0 1373.03311258 84% => OK
No of words: 224.0 270.72406181 83% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.14732142857 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.86867284054 4.04702891845 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.31168542603 2.5805825403 90% => OK
Unique words: 140.0 145.348785872 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.625 0.540411800872 116% => OK
syllable_count: 330.3 419.366225166 79% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.0036261097 49.2860985944 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.818181818 110.228320801 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.3636363636 21.698381199 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.72727272727 7.06452816374 109% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.183239209064 0.272083759551 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0682594780261 0.0996497079465 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0436988089726 0.0662205650399 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.113899646781 0.162205337803 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0395047344867 0.0443174109184 89% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 13.3589403974 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.59 12.2367328918 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.08 8.42419426049 96% => OK
difficult_words: 49.0 63.6247240618 77% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.