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 and lecture are about whether elephantine creature pterosaurs were capable of flying. In the reading, three explanations that the species could not fly mentioned. The lecturer is opinion of these interpretations are faulty, and the creature might be available to fly.
Firstly, the author posits that pterosaurs were cold-blooded as other reptiles, and unable to produce sufficient amount of energy that is needed for flight. Therefore, they could not soar as modern warm-blooded flying species. This specific argument is challenged by the lecturer. She states that the dense covering which is similar to fur was found from the evidence of pterosaurs in the recent study, which suggests that this creature was warm-blooded. If it had been warm-blooded, and its metabolism had been speedy, it would have been provided with considerable quantity of energy.
Secondly, in the reading, it is stated that pterosaurs were weighty, and unavailable to flap its wings fast enough to handle the heavy body. Nonetheless, the lecturer refutes this idea by mentioning that the species were unusually light thanks to its special anatomical structure although its size was gigantic. For example, its bone was hollowed insted of being solid, which provided possibility of being lightweight. Thereby, it was capable of flapping its wings to manage the amazingly light mass.
Finally, the author claims that contemporary birds are capable of running and jumping in order to depart from the surface. By contrast, pterosaurs were unable to depart from the ground since its leg muscles were small and feeble, which suggests that it could not fly. The lecturer, however, mentions that it had four legs instead of managing two hind legs as other birds do. Hence, its four limbs made possible for pterosaurs to jump and run rapidly.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, firstly, hence, however, if, nonetheless, second, secondly, so, therefore, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 10.4613686534 239% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 30.0 22.412803532 134% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 33.0 30.3222958057 109% => 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: 1539.0 1373.03311258 112% => OK
No of words: 291.0 270.72406181 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.28865979381 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.13022058845 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.75468084418 2.5805825403 107% => OK
Unique words: 163.0 145.348785872 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.560137457045 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 461.7 419.366225166 110% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 3.25607064018 246% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.51434878587 264% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 35.8501656203 49.2860985944 73% => OK
Chars per sentence: 96.1875 110.228320801 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.1875 21.698381199 84% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.375 7.06452816374 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.27373068433 140% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.171891370889 0.272083759551 63% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0579568142221 0.0996497079465 58% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0688119589971 0.0662205650399 104% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.10780093147 0.162205337803 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.011791290961 0.0443174109184 27% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 13.3589403974 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 53.8541721854 99% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.4 12.2367328918 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.09 8.42419426049 108% => OK
difficult_words: 84.0 63.6247240618 132% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 10.7273730684 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 70.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 21.0 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.