Edward PicCarthy, age 10, of New York, N.Y., for his question:

If there ever was a flying dragon, he was a pterodactyl. The name of this ancient fellow means the wing‑fingered one and he belonged to the order of flying lizards called Pterosauriai The biggest of these air minded reptiles was named ptsranodon. Pterodactyls were not true birds.

Perhaps they came to teach the true birds how to fly. If so, they were well equipped for the job. For pteranodon had a wing spread of 25 feet. He was the largest flying animal that every launched himself into the air.

The great Sauria family of animals developed a vast variety of shapes and sizes. There was a bulky rhino‑type dinosaur and a dolphin type dinosaur who took to the sea. There were dinosaurs who walked on four logs and dinosaurs who walked on two legs. And, of course, there was and endless assortment of weapons and armor plating,

About 180 million years agog the Sauria family dominated the land and wore .at home in the sea. It was time to conquer the air. This job was taken over by the Pterosauria branch of the family, the pterodactyls. These words beginning with ptsr are easy to say when you remember that the letter p is silent.

According to the fossil records, the flying lizards seemed to spring up suddenly. Their earliest remains occur in deposits of the late Triassic Periods some 180 million years ago. The creatures had wings somewhat like those of our bats. The wing was formed by a flap of skin which joined the outstretched arm to the side of the body. In true birds, the wing is not attached along the side of the body from shoulder to feet. When the pterodactyls spread axis wings, he formed a wide parachute like an unbroken strip of flying carpet. Hs made a wide, narrow shadow as he soared and swooped above the ground.

There is no doubt that the pterodactylts wings were formed from his arms. The arm and hand bones appear along the front edge of each wing. The fourth finger was very long indeed and ended in a strong craw which extended beyond  the wing membrane. True birds are unable to use their wings as hands. The pterodactyl could claw and maybe hold his prey with those finger‑wing of his.

Fossil remains of pterodactyls have been found in Bavaria and in Kansas. Both these regions were once covered with shallow waters. In the chalk bed of Gove County, Kansas, ancient pterodactyls left imprints of their feathers. There also was found the skeleton of a huge pteranodon.

All the pterodactyls were cold‑blooded, toothless animals with powerful bills. They were meat eaters and must have swallowed their food whole. Pteranodon was a fish eater, rather like a huge bat‑like pelican. These flying reptiles lived on earth for over 100 million years. When their world was done they bade goodbye to the world along with all the dinosaurs about 60 million years ago. By that time the true birds hack learned to fly anal were well established.