I agree that Fell beast are remakably pterosaurian in general apperaance (I am using pterosaurian instead of pterodatylyin to incude those mebers of the the pterosaur family who are not pterodactlys) with one marke difference of corse, namely that most if not all known pterosaurs have very short necks. the bat wings do not really precude a reptilian or saurian origin, "Pterodactyl means "finger winged". but there is no hard an fast rule that says that a bat like structure could not evolve as well. Come to think of it most images of dragons, including Tolkein's use a bat wing structure, and dragon's (if they existed are generall assume to be reptiles/saurians. I tend to imagine something vaugely wyvren (two legged dragon) shaped but with a long neck ending in a beaky head (I honest dont know if fell beats have teeth or not) possibly with a casque (horny crest). They proably have one un-reptile like trait though; fell beast are likey warm blooded (like some dinosaurs were supposed to be). Flying takes a lot of energy (remeber fell beast are actual fliers, not simply gliders) and a fully cold blooded animal, especially one as big as fell beasts were would likey not posess a suffciently efficent metabolism. There also would be little use in buliding a messenger servie around animals that would (given thier size) need to bask in the sun most of the day to get thier body heat up enough that they could be usable.
Speaking of dragons I seem to recall an earier thread in which someone asked why Sauron did not try and convince the remaining dragons of ME into joing with him, . While I have no proof of this there is a theory I would like to propose namely that none of the remaing dragons would have been of use. It is said that Smaug was the last of the great dragons, I propse he may also have been the last of the winged dragons as well as possibly the last of the Uruloki (Gandalf does say that there are no dragons hot enough to melt a ring anymore, but whether that means the those left have no fire, or simply not enough is unclear) That's enough deviation back to fell beasts
As for thier orgins I seem to recall general cosensus being that there were another of Morgoth's creations, just one he never got around to using. We know that Orc are sometimes beieved to be the result of Morgoth's twisting of elves; maybe fell beast are the resut of a similar twisting of eagles, or an unholy hybidization of dragon and vampire (bat). Certainly unlike dragons, fell beast appear to be non sentient, or at least non verbal on the order of an itlellegent animal (like a horse) but no more.
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