Over the Edge

Paleoart of Thapunngaka, which made waves a few years back as the largest Australian pterosaur. As one of the ornithocheiriformes, it was distantly related to some of the more well-known genera, such as Pteranodon. I've made the decision to present the male and female as similarly-sized animals, simply because we don't have too much evidence of dimorphism in the ornithocheirids (that I know of) and thus also made the decision to make this individual pair off with a singular mate instead of multiple. Nevertheless, much like seabirds, that doesn't always mean complete monogamy. Here, a "homewrecker" individual has invaded and attempted to mate with the female Thapunngaka, and has taken significant wing damage as a consequence. This happens with penguins, too! There can be some pretty crazy mating-related fights in the bird world. The "original" male has followed up the wing-tearing with what has been colloquially called the "pterosaur smash" - the use of powerful wing muscles to sort of "punch" the opponent; in this case off a cliff. It's unclear as to whether this is something pterosaurs would actually *do* considering they don't want to strain their arms too hard, but it seems feasible to me, especially against a fellow pterosaur - an opponent who is fairly light. A colony of Aussiedraco gawk at the event. Both it and Thapunngaka are basically known from jawbones, but Aussiedraco was definitely the smaller animal. Either way, they're hoping the falling pterosaur dies because free food is never a bad thing..

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