They discover a formidable flying dinosaur in Australia

the Thapunngaka shawi, how the prehistoric beast was baptized, It is “the closest thing in real life to a dragon”, pointed out Richards, who aspires to a doctorate at the University of Queensland.

The description of this pletosaurus was based on the analysis of a jawbone fossil discovered in June 2011 by local Len Shaw on the lands of the Wanamara people in a remote northern part of the Australian state of Queensland in eastern Australia.

Scientists calculate that this dinosaur he had a skull of about one meter and was armed with a set of 40 molars which allowed them to feed on the large fish that inhabited the ancient sea of ​​Eromanga during the Cretaceous period, a period that It started 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago.

Shawi Thapunngaka, who would have been the first animals with bones in their backs that flew and were perfectly suited for propulsion flight, had relatively hollow pieces of bone with thin walls, according to scientists.

Steve Salisbury, co-author of the article and Richard’s thesis supervisor, highlighted the enormous size of the bony crest of the lower jaw, which was presumably similar to the upper jaw of this pletosaurus, the largest described in Australia to date.

According to the scientist “these ridges probably played a role in the flight dynamics of these creatures. “

The name of this flying dinosaur comes from ngaka (nga-ga) and thapun (ta-boon), which in the language of the aborigines of Wanamara means “mouth” and “spear”, respectively, while shawy derives from the surname of its discoverer.