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“It’s the closest thing we have to an actual dragon,” said Timothy Richards, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland and lead author of the study that details the new discovery. Richards and his team have published details of this wonderful find in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology this week.
The research refers to the creature as “Thapunngaka shawi. ” First name, “Thapunngaka, ”Pays homage to the first inhabitants of the region, by combining the words“ lance ”and“ bouche ”-“thapun” and “doctor”- in their language, Wanamara. The second name, “ShawHonors Len Shaw, a prospector who found the fossil in 2011.
It belongs to a group of pterosaurs known as the Anhanguerians. But what sets it apart from the rest Anhanguerians is the bony ridge on his jawbone. They were “a thriving and diverse group of reptiles – the very first spine animals to attempt powered flight,” notes Richards.
According to the statement, the species was identified by a piece of its fossilized lower jaw. Scientists found the piece at an excavation site in northwest Queensland, Australia. They date this species to nearly 110 million years ago in the Cretaceous.
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His upper jaw and the underside of his lower jaw were crested. According to experts, this may have contributed to its ability to take off. “These ridges probably played a role in the flight dynamics of these creatures, and I hope future research will provide more definitive answers,” said Steve Salisbury, vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Queensland and co-author. of the study, in a press release. .
After insects, pterosaurs would be the first animals to evolve in flight. However, pterosaurs aren’t technically dinosaurs, but closer to being their distant cousins. But because of their hollow, thin-walled and delicate bones, these flying reptiles have not so fossilized their extended families. the Thapunngaka shawi is the largest pterosaur ever discovered.
Its skull itself is seven feet long and its wingspan is nearly 23 feet, more than double that of the largest living flying bird, the Southern Royal Albatross.
“This thing would have been pretty wild. It would have cast a long shadow over a small, quivering dinosaur who wouldn’t have heard it until it was too late, ”Richards noted. “It was basically just a skull with a long neck, bolted to a pair of long wings.”
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