Our understanding of animal behavior depends on observation. Researchers can study how animals are born, grow and develop. We can gather evidence of how they interact with each other and their environment.
While not necessarily lacking in parental care, such species tend to be less dependent on or demanding of their parents. By contrast, living species showing the developmental pattern seen in the larger Pteranodon tend to have young that are not capable of independent movement. In these animals, intensive parental care—including feeding the young—is the norm.
Pteranodon's wing aspect ratio increased as the species grew, allowing it to develop a long, narrow wing, associated with soaring in modern birds. The smaller pterosaurs, however, showed a consistent or decreasing wing aspect ratio during growth, allowing more maneuverability. Pterosaur hatchlings' size was limited by ultimately the size of their eggs, which was constrained by the size of the pelvic opening of female pterosaurs, and by the. Compared to hard-shelled bird eggs, soft eggs are weaker and cannot support larger sizes. To grow big, pterosaurs had to do most of their growing after they hatched.
It's also possible that baby pterosaurs from larger species with parental care were not capable of flight, whereas smaller species wereTo grow to such a large body size, the giant pterosaurs also needed two things from their environment: space and updrafts. Big pterosaurs would principally have been soarers, meaning that they used updrafts to stay aloft and economized on energy by minimizing flapping.
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