JAKARTA – Tim scientist from Argentina reportedly managed to find two fossils of pterosaur species, and the category is the largest ever found in South America.
Reported from Live Science, Thursday (26/5/2022), dubbed the “dragon of death” by paleontologists, two giant flying reptiles were found in the Plottier Formation, an outcrop located in the province of Mendoza.
The wingspan of the two specimens, measuring 7 meters and 9 meters, respectively.
The researchers confirmed they were azhdarchids, a family of pterosaurs that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 146 million to 66 million years ago.
“Azhdarchids are known for their very large skulls, sometimes larger than their bodies. Their necks are very long and their bodies short and strong,” Leonardo D. Ortiz David, lead author of the study.
The scientists identified the pterosaurs as two individuals in the species Thanatosdrakon amaru.
The name “amaru” translates as “flying snake” from the Indigenous Quechuan language and refers to Amaru, the two-headed Inca god.
It was revealed that both pterosaurs died at the same time and one was not yet fully mature. However, scientists cannot confirm whether the two animals are part of the family or not.
“There is no indication in the fossil remains of a single parent relationship,” said Ortiz David.
However, it is certain that the two specimens were different sizes, and the smaller one was juvenile-subadult, and they were together when they died more than 86 million years ago.
The fossils, found during excavations for a civil construction project about 800 kilometers outside the capital Mendoza.
Ortiz David and his team were supervising the excavations when they discovered fossil fragments in the sediments of the plains.
The Mendoza region itself is renowned among paleontologists for other important dinosaur discoveries, including the giant sauropod Notocolossus, one of the world’s largest dinosaurs, in 2016.
Ortiz David said that the team’s discovery of fossils in such good condition was surprising, because pterosaur bones were fragile, and fossils were usually found in small pieces.
The fossils are currently housed in the Dinosaur Laboratory and Museum at Cuyo National University in Mendoza.
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