Jurassic-era “winged lizard” discovered in Chile

Santiago:

Chilean scientists have announced the discovery of the very first remains in the southern hemisphere of a type of Jurassic-era “winged lizard” known as the pterosaur.

Fossils of the dinosaur that lived some 160 million years ago in what is now the Atacama Desert, were discovered in 2009.

It has now been confirmed to be a rhamphorhynchine pterosaur – the first such creature to be found in Gondwana, the prehistoric supercontinent that later formed the landmasses of the southern hemisphere.

University of Chile researcher Jhonatan Alarcon said the creatures had a wingspan of up to two meters, a long tail and a pointed muzzle.

“We show that the distribution of animals in this group was wider than what was known to date,” he added.

The find was also “the oldest known pterosaur found in Chile,” the scientists reported in the scientific journal Acta Paleontologica Polonic.

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