Could Pterosaurs Really Fly?

image credit
Just what evidence is there that these ancient animals really could take to the skies? Pterosaurs are a group of flying reptiles that are close relatives of dinosaurs. There are plenty of misconceptions and misinformation about pterosaurs around the internet and beyond (just for the record: they are not dinosaurs, nor the ancestors of birds, not called pterodactyls, and didn't have leathery wings) but they are also a group which has had relatively little research attention paid to them compared to their more famous cousins.
That is changing, and changing rapidly, with a lot of work currently being directed at pterosaurs, and it's great to see a pretty big and rapid upgrade of our scientific understanding of an extinct group.