Quetzalcoatlus northropi (Northrop's Feathered Serpent God)

At 16’ tall with a 33’ long wingspan, Quetzalcoatlus (named after the Aztec feathered serpent god of wind & air) takes the title as the largest flying animal of all time. Imagine a creature as tall as a giraffe with wings the size of a small airplane’s; no flying airborne animal today even remotely compares. Quetzalcoatlus was also the climax of pterosaur evolution. Pterosaurs (informally known as “pterodactyls”) were flying reptiles that first appeared around 228 MYA, just 5 million years after the first of their close but distinct relatives: the dinosaurs. Appearing long before the earliest bird or bat, pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to ever attain powered flight. From humble crow-sized beginnings, pterosaurs then soared over Mesozoic Earth for around 160 million years and culminated their rule with Quetzalcoatlus 66 million years ago. Indeed, Quetzalcoatlus was the last of the pterosaurs as well as the largest; going extinct alongside the last of the non-avian dinosaurs. Quetzalcoatlus may have also been the most terrifying pterosaur. While early genera likely caught small insects on the wing, Quetzalcoatlus may have terrestrially stalked small/young dinosaurs much like a stork stalks a frog in today’s world. A relatively recent discovery (1971), Quetzalcoatlus was first and still only known from Texas; but one can easily imagine it effortlessly gliding over much of North America in its time - casting an ominous and awe-inspiring shadow across the landscape wherever it soared.