Word: pteranodons
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...Spider-Man and his Marvel superhero pals inhabit a comic-book-bright boulevard. Toon Lagoon is haunted by old favorites from the rotogravure, like Beetle Bailey and Dagwood. Jurassic Park's primeval foliage conceals a labyrinthine playground, a Discovery Center where you can see a raptor egg hatch, a Pteranodon Flyers ride that lets you soar above the park and a mechanical triceratops that pees and farts on cue. The beast, nicknamed Cera, allows a child to pet her--"unless the kid is wearing a Disney T shirt," jokes Mark Woodbury, who oversees the park's design. "Then she rips...
...found contained lots of crustacean burrows but no bones from larger animals like crocodiles that might have fed a carrion eater. Some pterosaurs had beaks shaped like those of spoonbills. Pterodaustro had a mouthful of strainer-like teeth that it probably used to filter microscopic plankton from the water. Pteranodon is thought to have scooped up its prey and stashed it in a pelican-like throat pouch...
...Michael Jackson's woes and the frantic behind-the-scenes fine-tuning of Bill Clinton's health-care proposal. Instead of a more traditional ficus plant, a 6-ft.-tall inflatable Godzilla peers from one corner of Howard's work space, while Gumby covers the exit. A prehistoric pteranodon (with a 6-ft. wingspan) swoops over story conferences from its perch on the ceiling. Souvenirs sent from all over the world by friends and colleagues line the bookshelves. "Some people would say I have an office in lieu of a personality," says Howard. "It's my secret garden of kitsch...
Scientists have somewhat lamely avoided the question by suggesting that Pteranodon plunged off high cliffs in order to build up sufficient air speed for its gliding flight. But if it could not regain altitude in flight, how did it climb back to the cliff top again on its woefully inadequate legs? And how did it take off from the water after fishing...
These perplexing questions may now have been answered by two scientists using a standard aerodynamic formula. Assuming that Pteranodon weighed only 40 Ibs. (it had an extremely delicate skeleton), Geologist Cherrie D. Bramwell and Physicist G.R. Whitfield of the University of Reading in Berkshire, England, used the formula to calculate that the beast had to attain an air speed of only 15 m.p.h. to take off. In winds above that velocity, they report in Nature, Pteranodon would only have needed to spread its wings to become airborne, easily taking off from level ground or the crest of a wave. "Thus...