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A team of Australian researchers have discovered the country’s largest flying reptile.
The formidable long-necked pterosaur had a wingspan of seven meters in length and what the team calls a “spear mouth.”
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According to an article published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Thapunngaka shawI was located in the Toolebuc geological formation near Richmond in North West Queensland.
The authors noted that the Toolebuc Formation shows the period when shallow seas covered about 60% of Australia.
In June 2011, local fossicker Len Shaw discovered the rostral portion of the crested mandible of the New Anhanguerian pterosaur at a site called a “water pond”.
“This is a very exciting find because pterosaurs are extremely rare, not just in Australia but around the world. It was discovered 10 years ago by a man called Len Shaw. So Len was working for Twin Council and he would be one of the first – loader operators. During his lunch break, he would basically fill the front loader bucket with water, then tip it gently over a sloping area of the quarry. And, one day, he did it and lo and behold the eye sockets were staring at him, “University of Queensland PhD candidate and co-author Tim Richards explained in a Monday video detailing the find.” And, he knew. that he was on to something. And, uh, he called Kronosaurus Korner-day curator Paul Stumkat and they searched him. And that’s all. This is the story of our pterosaur. “
In an article from the University of Queensland, Richards said their pterosaur was “the closest thing[tounvraidragon”soulignantquelecrâneàluiseulauraitfaitplusd’unmètredelongetcontenait40dentsutiliséespourattraperdelanourrituredanscequiétaitautrefoislamerd’Eromanga[They[havetoareallifedragon”pointingoutthattheskullalonewouldhavebeenmorethanonemeterlongandcontaining40teethusedtocatchfoodinwhatwasoncetheEromangaSea[d’unvraidragon”soulignantquelecrâneàluiseulauraitfaitplusd’unmètredelongetcontenait40dentsutiliséespourattraperdelanourrituredanscequiétaitautrefoislamerd’Eromanga[they[havetoareallifedragon”pointingoutthattheskullalonewouldhavebeenmorethanonemeterlongandcontaining40teethusedtocatchfoodinwhatwasoncetheEromangaSea
The bones of the creature were thin-walled and relatively hollow.
The article notes that pterosaur fossils are “exceptionally rare” and that fewer than 20 specimens have been described since the discovery of the continent’s first pterosaur about 40 years ago.
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“The Lower Cretaceous (Upper Albian) Toolebuc Formation of northwest Queensland is the most productive horizon for Australian pterosaurs,” wrote Richards and fellow author Dr Steven Salisbury and Stumkat in their summary.
The group said their pterosaur had characteristics that “indicated an affinity with the Anhangueridae,” a known group of toothy pterosaurs, and their findings were “consistent with their cosmopolitan distribution reported during this period.”
“Thapunngaka shawi can be distinguished from other anhanguerids by possessing a mandible with a medially smooth dorsal surface and one-size-fits-all alveoli that are positioned laterally along the jaw, ”they wrote, noting that further phylogenetic analysis has revealed a “close relationship” between all Australian Anhangueridae and “indicates endemic Australian radiation within Anhangueridae”.
Salisbury told the university that the genre was named in honor of the First Nations people of the Richmond area and incorporates words from the now extinct language of the Wanamara Nation.
“Thapunngaka means ‘spear mouth’ in Wanamara, the language of the people on whose land the fossils were found,” he wrote in a Monday tweet.
“The name of the species, shawi, honors the discoverer of the fossil, Len Shaw, so the name means ‘the mouth of Shaw’s spear’, ”he said.
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As the third largest known Anhanguerian pterosaur in the world, the newspaper said that Thapunngaka shawi “provides further evidence for the existence of an increasingly diverse range of large crested pterosaurs in the Australian part of eastern Gondwana during the Cretaceous.”
“There is always more to be found,” said Richards. “There is always more ground to scratch.”
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