So like I've been thinking about this whole thing about later pterodactyloid pterosaurs losing their tails as they became more advanced flyers, with earlier forms retaining them as a kind of "flight stabilizer" whilst they kinda got to grips with the whole flight thing. Trouble is, this has never really seemed a satisfying theory to me personally. Creatures like Rhamphorynchus were already clearly very sophisticated flyers in their time, with birds having lost their tails very early on precisely BECAUSE they cause drag and flight instability. Birds today such as swallows and terns that have deliberately developed long tail streamers have done so as an adaptation to more technical flight styles, playing off of sacrificing some efficiency for causing themselves deliberate drag that they can use to perform sharp and precise areal maneuvers. By contrast, soaring birds such as albatrosses have very short reduced tails as they focus primarily on long distance efficiency, which tracks well with the more long distance soaring lifestyles of a lot of later large pterosaurs. I dunno if anyone out there with more of an academic background might have some input on this, this is just my personal thoughts. Anyway, possible food for thought..?
EDIT
A word. Later pterodactyloid tailless pterosaurs evolved from earlier tailed rhamphorynchoid forms
