Pterosaur: A new species has been discovered by scientists from Portsmouth University
Posted on 12/03/2008 3:51:17 PM PST by bruinbirdman
A new species of pterosaurs which had a wingspan 16ft wide has been uncovered by scientists - the largest of its kind to ever be found.
Pterosaur: A new species has been discovered by scientists from Portsmouth University
Mark Witton, a researcher at the University of Portsmouth, was able to estimate from a partial skull fossil that the pterosaur would have had a wingspan of five metres (16.4ft) and would have been more than one metre (39 inches) tall at the shoulder.
The fossil is the first example of a chaoyangopteridae, a group of toothless pterosaurs, to be found outside China and is the largest one ever discovered.
Mr Witton said: "Some of the previous examples we have from this family in China are just 60 centimetres (2ft) long - as big as the skull of the new species.
"Put simply, it dwarfs any chaoyangopterid we've seen before by miles."
Mr Witton has christened the new species Lacusovagus, meaning lake wanderer, after the large body of water in which the remains were buried.
He was asked to examine the specimen, which had lain in a German museum for several years after its discovery in the Crato formation of the Araripe Basin in north east Brazil, an area well known for its fossils and their excellent state of preservation.
He said this fossil was preserved in an unusual way, making its interpretation difficult.
He explained: "Usually fossils like this are found lying on their sides but this one was lying on the roof of its mouth and had been rather squashed, which made even figuring out whether it had teeth difficult.
"Still, it's clear to see that lacusovagus had an unusually wide skull which has implications for its feeding habits - maybe it liked particularly
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
COOL!!!
Groovy.
Paging Joseph Farah.
Your Bird has come in.
It's the Ted Kennedy of dinosaurs. Did they find it near a bridge?
A lot of guesswork going on here. Real science? I wonder.
Rosie O should count her lucky stars
Quetzalcoatl?
IB4HTP
In Before The Helen Thomas Picture.
Prior to today, this was an Unidentified Flying dinOsaur, so I’m in before the UFO crowd as well.
tastes like chicken?
I AGREE!!!
What part do you feel is not real?
The bones?
The age of the bones?
The way the bones are put together?
What explanation do you have for these fossil bones?
A lot of supposed “discoveries” are later exposed as frauds.
And the size of the heads having to due with the size of their prey is speculation as is most of this dinosaur stuff. It’s an industry for some folks. I understand this.
Report is that they tasted like chicken.
bttt
“A lot” have been exposed as frauds? The most recent fraud I remember was dinosaur bones, but from different species mixed together.
There sure are a lot of dinosaur fossils out there, do you think most are fraudulent?
What do you think these bones were? What explanation do you offer?
With those critters flying around it would be hard to keep a clean car.
Plenty of dinosaurs were vegetarians. And some big ones, at that.
Most birds today are vegetarians with some little bugs thrown in.
"Lake wanderer" could have been a watercress eater.
yitbos
You can usually get a good guess of that by the teeth.
Stomach contents are also nice. I remember the dinosaur fossil in the belly of a mammal fossil found a couple years back.
toothless. (in my best Emily Latella) NEVERMIND. ;)
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