With wingspans of over 25 feet, pterosaurs flew very well. However, many biologists would say that feathers aren't much of an advancement since, if you look at how they're formed, feathers are really little more than glorified reptilian scales. Fact is, from a biological point of view, there's not much fundamental difference between birds and reptiles. Birds have feathers while reptiles have scales, and birds specialize in air travel while modern reptiles stick to ground transportation, but these differences are far less impressive than the huge differences between reptiles and amphibians. One way to convince ourselves of the closeness of birds to reptiles is by looking at a chicken's legs.
Chicken feet bear powerful claws worthy of any small dinosaur, and they are covered with scales .
One often sees in chicken yards one or more individual chickens whose lower legs sprout fluffy feathers where scales should be. This happens because genetic information for making a feather is practically the same as for making a scale, just with a tiny bit of extra information thrown in. However, in a way, this makes birding even more enchanting.