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 discuss Pterosaur's power fight(flying by flapping their wings). The article states that due to their issue of metabolism, heaviness, and rudimentary back muscles that these winged reptiles were unable to do power flight. However, the professor refutes all three arguments and presenting counter-arguments for each of the assertions in light of recent researches that they were able to do this phenomenon.
First of all, the lecturer argues that fossil evidence has remnants of hair or fur all over their body which is highly peculiar for warm-blooded animals. She elaborates this point by, A warm-blooded animal needed to maintain high body temperature to withstand the high temperature outside. Hence, their metabolism is rapid which could have contributed to their power flight.
This point contrast the point made in the reading. In the article, it is mentioned that they are cold-blooded animals like other ancient reptiles.
Second, the idea that large pterosaurs were too heavy that they cannot perform power flight is rejected by the tutor by contending that the anatomy of the long bones was hollow, contributes to the unusual less bodyweight of the reptile. In other words, Even if they have enormous structure, the hollow bones kept them weightless. Thus proves clearly they can perform power flight.
Finally, the article points out that the back muscles of the leg are small and weak that never allowed them to fly up in the air. Nonetheless, the professor casts doubt about this assertion as well. Unlike birds, the Pterosaurs used their 4 limbs to run fast, walk, and fly themselves in the air. She says an example that the bats- a modern animal also used 4 limbs to push off ground and fly up in the sky.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, hence, however, if, nonetheless, second, so, thus, well, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 22.412803532 147% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 37.0 30.3222958057 122% => 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: 1467.0 1373.03311258 107% => OK
No of words: 289.0 270.72406181 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.07612456747 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.12310562562 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.67239161493 2.5805825403 104% => OK
Unique words: 171.0 145.348785872 118% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.59169550173 0.540411800872 109% => OK
syllable_count: 433.8 419.366225166 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.5201866807 49.2860985944 100% => OK
Chars per sentence: 97.8 110.228320801 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.2666666667 21.698381199 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.46666666667 7.06452816374 106% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.27373068433 187% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.128718841936 0.272083759551 47% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0372195721314 0.0996497079465 37% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0471008642002 0.0662205650399 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.062590058004 0.162205337803 39% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0478369228048 0.0443174109184 108% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 13.3589403974 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 53.8541721854 113% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.18 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.79 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 77.0 63.6247240618 121% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 86.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 26.0 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.