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 capabl

Essay topics:

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 passage states that pterosaurus, a reptile with wings which used to live in ancient times, could not have the ability to fly and proposes some reasons. However, the professor in the lecture casts doubt on the points presented in the reading passage.

First, considering the reading passage pterosaurus was a cold-blooded animal, since the other reptiles are now cold-blooded, and so it could not provide the sufficient energy to fly. In contrast, the professor in the lecture contradicts the idea and further explains that recent discoveries show that the animal's body was filled with a hair-like cover such as fur, the feature exists among warm-blooded animals. Hence if they were warm-blooded they could obtain the energy to fly.

Second, the reading claims that these animlals were too large to have the ability to fly since they could not flap their wings quick enough for this purpose. On the contrary, the professor in lecture refutes the information in the reading and make the point that pterosaurus had a special anatomic figure with hollow bones leading to a light weight. so they could have the ability to fly by flapping their wings despite their large figure.

Third, the author in the reading passage puts forward the idea that these animals could not take off because they did not have strong muscles in leg helping them to jump enough or run fast in order to launch a fly. On the other hand, the speaker in lecture contradicts the idea and add that comparing these animals to birds is a mistake. Ptosaurus had 4 legs despite birds having 2 limbs, and they could use all 4 limbs in order to run or jump. Therefore, actually they could launch a fly using their 4 limbs.

Votes
Average: 6.5 (2 votes)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 413, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...ture exists among warm-blooded animals. Hence if they were warm-blooded they could ob...
^^^^^
Line 13, column 337, Rule ID: LIGHT_WEIGHT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'lightweight'?
Suggestion: lightweight
...c figure with hollow bones leading to a light weight. so they could have the ability to fly ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 351, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: So
...hollow bones leading to a light weight. so they could have the ability to fly by f...
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, first, hence, however, if, second, so, therefore, third, in contrast, such as, on the contrary, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 6.0 10.4613686534 57% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 12.0772626932 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 30.3222958057 129% => OK
Nominalization: 1.0 5.01324503311 20% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1428.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 292.0 270.72406181 108% => OK
Chars per words: 4.8904109589 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.13376432452 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.47389020858 2.5805825403 96% => OK
Unique words: 150.0 145.348785872 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.513698630137 0.540411800872 95% => OK
syllable_count: 428.4 419.366225166 102% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 3.25607064018 0% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.2316917391 49.2860985944 110% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.0 110.228320801 108% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.3333333333 21.698381199 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.25 7.06452816374 145% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => 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: 0.10033706308 0.272083759551 37% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0417347545058 0.0996497079465 42% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0479388846562 0.0662205650399 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0707683412405 0.162205337803 44% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0419366861276 0.0443174109184 95% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 13.3589403974 103% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.38 12.2367328918 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.91 8.42419426049 94% => OK
difficult_words: 57.0 63.6247240618 90% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 60 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 18 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.