A Hat, A Brooch, A Pterodactyl!

A I Generated Picture

Apart from being one of my favourite jokes in the film Airplane, and the dinosaur I was most interested in as a child, the reasons I would bring the Pterodactyl back to life are based on science, human nature and the likelihood of success.

If you decided to bring, for example, the meat eating Tyrannosaurus Rex back to life you would completely wreck the food chain and cause the loss of many existing species. If you decided to bring back the plant eating Diplodocus, perhaps my favourite dinosaur due to Dippy at the Natural History Museum, it would destroy whole forests which are, of course, far less extensive than the forests they roamed in millions of years ago. The Pterodactyl would of course affect the food chain but if we could bring it back in an area with few existing bird species it would help to transform it in a good way.

If either of those big beasts were brought back they would be top of the list for the ‘big game’ hunters who make themselves feel important by slaughtering animals who are doing nothing harmful to them. Mind you, it’s not just those evil individuals who would be looking for a reason to destroy large creatures we brought back. The amount of money dinosaur hide would be worth on the illegal market would be sky high. So, there’s no point bringing back the big dinosaurs because humans are basically not to be trusted when it comes to sharing with their own kind let alone other species. The Pterodactyl, although it would be sadly sought after, would almost certainly not have anything like the same cachet for hunters.

So, that leaves us with the Pterodactyl. Whole colonies could be reintroduced far away from the risk of humans. For example, the National Park in New South Wales has a prehistoric tree called the Wollemi Pine which is protected by complete secrecy as to it’s location. The same could happen with the Pterodactyl until it becomes entrenched within an area. Once that happens tourists with cameras not guns could be allowed to shoot them as they watch them fly overhead from a safe distance as experts tell them about these magnificent creatures.

So, there you have it. We should look forward to seeing the return of the monarch of the skies in the future. I for one will welcome their reappearance.