Australian paleontologists have discovered the fossilized skeleton of a previously unknown Anhangeria pterosaur, dating back 100 million years.
The newly identified pterosaur species lived in what is now northeastern Australia's state of Queensland during the Early Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago.
Scientific Name Haliskia petersenii This flying reptile had a premaxillary crown and curved teeth.
It also had a long wingspan of about 4.6 metres (15.1 feet).
“Haliskia petersenii “About 100 million years ago, when much of central-west Queensland was underwater and covered by a vast inland sea, and on Earth where the southern Victoria coastline is now, it would have been a fearsome predator,” said Adele Pentland, a PhD student at Curtin University.
Fossilized remains Haliskia petersenii Kevin Petersen, curator of the Kronosaurus Corner Museum, in November 2021 Toule back formation Of the Eromanga Basin.
“Haliskia petersenii “The fossil is 22 per cent complete, more than twice as complete as the only other partial pterosaur skeleton found in Australia,” Mr Pentland said.
“The specimen includes a complete lower jaw, the tip of the upper jaw, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, both wing bones and part of a leg.”
“There are also very thin and delicate throat bones present, indicating the presence of a muscular tongue, which would have been useful when eating fish and cephalopods.”
Pentland and colleagues Anhangeria is a group of pterosaurs known to have lived all over the world, including in what is now Brazil, Britain, Morocco, China, Spain, and the United States.
“The global nature of the Anhang-area pterosaurs, and in particular their success across Gondwana (e.g. in the Eromanga and Araripe basins), may have been made possible by niche partitioning within this clade,” the paleontologists said.
“However, rigorous testing of this hypothesis will require multiple locations and better time constraints.”
“Additional data on this clade are available Haliskia petersenii ” sheds light on the palaeoecology of Anhangeria pterosaurs and highlights the taxonomic diversity of these flying reptiles from the Cretaceous of Australia.”
Team paper Published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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A.H. Pentland others. 2024. Haliskia petersenii A new Anhangelian pterosaur that lived in the early Late Cretaceous of Australia. Scientific Reports 14, 11789; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-60889-8
Source: www.sci.news
