Subject: I've been wandering the field for the past week.
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Posted on: 2014-09-11 13:59:00 UTC
I actually ran into the pinhead on the hilariously-titled Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, though I think I remember seeing it in a book when I was a kid (and being suitably horrified). I think there's been a couple of links across to TZ, but I haven't archive-binged it as yet. I'm sure I'll get there... :D
LB4T: apparently there was a female Quetzalcoatlus in III and VII. It looked like this (on the left); seems it was of the bipedal variety, and has a terribly shrunken neck and bloated body to go with it. It also didn't speak, but was 'friendly'. So it's a possible.
Other azhdarchids I know of are in the Dinotopia series - as Quetzalcoatlus skybax - and one brief appearance in Walking with Dinosaurs of yet another Quetzal. Neither of those talk, though the Skybaxes are intelligent. Dinotopia also has the rarely-seen Quetzalcoatlus northropi, which are larger and have the advantage of being real. Still don't talk, though.
Or at least, don't talk English. It's well established that there are numerous Saurian languages on Dinotopia (Bix speaks a lot of them), so presumably the pterosaurs do talk. So maybe our unnamed canon azhdarchid was... hmm.
Actually, the wiki tells me there is a talking Skybax - Windchaser, from the novel of the same name. He's reclusive, but ends up as human/Skybax ambassador. So he might fit, possibly once he gets old. The canon can't be Nimbus, really - he and Cirrus come across as too adventurous. But Windchaser, I can see...
(Yes, they're all Quetzals. I'm not sure popular culture has heard of any other azhdarchids...)
Missions nitpicking random things - and pterosaur anatomy is pretty random - are always a good thing! Provided they do it in an accessible way; hopefully even someone who's never heard of Azhdarchidae got that possibly!Windchaser was a giant flying reptile.
hS