There’s a new pterodactyl in town. Museum curators discovered the winged, carnivorous reptile’s fossil while checking other specimens in an area available to amateur fossil hunters. Researchers classify this species as a unique species. scientific report.
Find new pterosaur fossils
Kronosaurus Corner Museum curator Kevin Petersen was visiting a site in western Queensland, Australia, that is open to the public with permission from the Richmond Marine Fossil Museum in Australia. While checking the fossils he was preparing for removal, he noticed bones protruding from the top of the shale layer.
“I immediately identified it as a pterosaur because the bones resembled a cracked hard-boiled egg, a characteristic of flat pterosaur bones,” Peterson said.
Because pterosaur fossils are relatively rare, he immediately cordoned off the area and began excavation. As the dig progressed, Petersen realized he was onto something special.
“I was completely amazed to see that 22% of these incredibly rare fossils had been preserved,” he says. “That’s completely unheard of.”
Read more: What are fossils and where are they most common?
Pterosaur Bone Survey
The specimen included a complete lower jaw, the tip of the upper jaw, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, both wing bones and parts of the legs, and a thin, delicate cervical vertebra.
Adele Pentland, a graduate student at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, was excited as she examined the fossil. First, she determined that the fossil belonged to a category of pterosaurs called anhanguera. The specimen shared several characteristics with other Anhangerians. It boasts a distinctive crest on its jaw, short collarbones, and curved, spike-shaped teeth.
But there were also differences. Several differences in cervical vertebrae length and tooth size are not consistent with any known pterosaur. That distinction was important enough to determine that the fossil represented a new pterosaur species, which they named pterosaurs. Haliskia Peterseni.
Read more: How do scientists reconstruct what dinosaurs looked like?
H. Peterseninew pterosaur species
Pentland says: H. Peterseni They must have been effective predators 100 million years ago. The reptile had a wingspan of up to 15 feet.
“As a winged reptile, [H. peterseni] You can hunt a large area and even move to new hunting areas during times of inclement weather,” she says. “Because they had many teeth that fell out and were replaced throughout their lives, and they also had a muscular tongue, [H. peterseni] “They were able to capture slippery prey such as fish and squid-like cephalopods.”
The hunting ground would have looked different than it does now. At the time, much of central-western Queensland was underwater and covered by vast inland seas.
H. Peterseni It joins several marine fossil specimens on display at Kronosaurus Korner. Kronosaurus queenslandicusLargest marine reptile with a skull at least 2.4 m long, most complete plesiosaur from Australia, plesiosaur bone Eromangasaurus and ichthyosaur Platipterizius.
Read more: 5 Most Interesting Pterosaurs
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik was a science journalist for more than 20 years, specializing in U.S. life sciences policy and global science career issues. He started his career in newspapers but then switched to science magazines. His research has been published in publications such as Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
