Weird Fossilized Flying Reptile 'A Vision of Hell'

Yahoo! News ^ | Thu Jul 18, 2:04 PM ET | Will Dunham

[AM2000]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have found the remains of one of the weirdest creatures ever discovered -- a big flying reptile that lived during the time of the dinosaurs that snapped up fish with a scissors-like beak as it skimmed over the water and had a head crowned by a huge, bony crest.

Brazilian ( news - web sites) scientists Alexander Kellner and Diogenes de Almeida Campos on Thursday described a previously unknown type of pterosaur (pronounced TER-oh-sawr), winged reptiles that were cousins of the dinosaurs.

The find is important both for the oddity of its cranial crest and for the insight that the animal offers into how pterosaurs hunted for food, the researchers said. They named it Thalassodromeus sethi (pronounced thal-ahs-oh-DROH-mee-us SETH-ee), meaning "sea runner" and "Seth," for the ancient Egyptian god of evil and chaos.

Kellner said Thalassodromeus, which lived 110 million years ago, had a head that measured 4-1/2 feet long due to the size of its crest, a wingspan of nearly 15 feet and a body length of about 6 feet.

"If you didn't have the fossils, you wouldn't believe that such an animal would have ever lived," Kellner said in a telephone interview from Rio de Janeiro.

"Can you imagine such an animal just cruising over the water and skimming over the surface in your direction? It must have been, really, a vision of hell," added Kellner, of the National Museum in Rio.

Searching for food, Thalassodromeus probably glided low over the water in a brackish inland lagoon, its lower jaw skimming the surface of the water, ready to nab any tasty fish or crustaceans it encountered, said Kellner, whose findings were published in the journal Science.

Similarities between this pterosaur's flattened jaws, which end in a scissors-like beak, and the beak of a type of living bird called Rynchops prompted the belief that Thalassodromeus, like these so-called skimmer birds, skimmed over the water's surface, with the lower jaw slightly submerged, Kellner said.

"The new pterosaur from Brazil gives us important information about the feeding strategy of pterosaurs," Fabio Dalla Vecchia, a pterosaur expert at the Paleontological Museum of Monfalcone, Italy, told Reuters.

A REMARKABLE FAMILY CREST

The most eye-popping characteristic of Thalassodromeus is its large, thin, cranial crest that looks with its V-shaped end like a giant spearhead or knife blade. The bony crest makes up about three-quarters of the animal's head. Proportionately, it is the largest such crest of any known extinct or living vertebrate, with the exception of one other type of pterosaur.

"This is pretty close to the far end of weird," said Christopher Bennett, a pterosaur expert at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut who has seen the new specimen. "But pterosaurs are really weird animals."

The crest is covered by a network of grooves that Kellner said represented an extensive system of blood vessels that the pterosaur may have employed to regulate its body temperature -- in this case, cooling off.

Bennett called this "a reasonable conclusion," but said there is "an awful lot of evidence to suggest that crests were used for sexual display" in other pterosaurs.

Pterosaurs were not dinosaurs, although both were highly successful types of reptiles. Both appeared about 225 million years ago during the Triassic Period and flourished until 65 million years ago, when an asteroid or other big extraterrestrial object slammed into Earth. Some fossils suggest that pterosaurs had a fur-like body covering.

Pterosaurs were the Earth's first flying vertebrates, appearing many millions of years before birds or bats.

Thalassodromeus lived in the middle of the Cretaceous period -- the final chapter of the age of dinosaurs.

Little is known about pterosaurs because their lightly built bones do not lend themselves to fossilization. Kellner describes Thalassodromeus in the journal Science based on a well-preserved skull found in 1983 at the fossil-rich Santana Formation in northeastern Brazil. He said bones from other parts of the body have been found there, allowing him to determine the animal's wingspan and body size.

[AM2000]

Very cool.

[APBaer]

It looks similar to a:

ONE EYED, ONE HORNED, FLYING PURPLE PEOPLE EATER

I saw the thing comming out of the sky.

It had one big horn and a great big eye.

I commenced to shaking and I said,"Ooh Wee!"

It looks like a Purple People Eater to me!



CHORUS:

It was a One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater

One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater

One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater

Sure looks strange to me.



It came from the sky and lit in a tree.
I said, "Mister Purple Eater don't eat me!"

I heard him say in a voice so gruff,

"I wouldn't eat you cause' you're too tough."

(CHORUS)

I said, "Mister Purple People Eater what's you're line?"

He said' "Eating purple people, and it sure is fine.

But that's not the reason I came to land...

I want to get a job in a Rock and Roll band."

(CHORUS)

He jumped from the tree and he landed on the ground.
He started to rock, a really rollin' around.

He sang a little ditty with a swinging tune

Like, " a bop bop a lupa lop a loom bam boom!"

(CHORUS)

Well, he went on his way and what do you know?

I saw him last night on a TV show.

He was blowing his horn and really knocking them dead

Playing Rock and Roll music through the horn on his head.

(CHORUS)

[keithtoo]

"If you didn't have the fossils, you wouldn't believe that such an animal would have ever lived,"

Yes, as a matter of fact you could discern that such creatures lived by the nearly universal dragon legends that come from virtually ALL ancient cultures. I believe at one time, these creatures and man coexisted. Weirder discoveries have happened. As when previously long extinct species, turn up somewhere when they should have died off long ago.

Isn't it interesting that, not only do all depictions or dragons look alike, they virtually ALL have wings! What are the odds of that? You can draw a picture of an imaginary lizard all you like, but why in the world would you give it wings?

[Paul Atreides]

Its descendent...

[AM2000]

Do most cultures depict these dragons as dangerous? For example, the "fire-breathing" dragon that most of us in the West have heard/read about - is that what other cultures believe as well? Just curious.

[keithtoo]

You have no right to drag poor innocent bats down to Hitlery's level.

Shame on you.

[murdoog]

Wow, 6 replies and no mention of James Carville.

[keithtoo]

I've actually heard of some ancient dinousars and Pterosaurs which have unexplained cavities in their skull which literally could have held some chemical that could have been expelled thru their nostrils or mouth that could have had a "smoky" effect.

Then again, anyone exhaling in a cold-enough environment, gives off breath as 'steam'. Of course, most cold-blooded reptiles dont last long in cold climates, but some do.

[AM2000]

It's late. If this thread was in the afternoon... fuhgeddaboutit!

[Cloud William]

Aim that bazooka carefully, Race!

[martin_fierro]

The find is so recent that I can't find any closer illustrations than this.

[martin_fierro]

Race Bannon was, is, and ever shall be THE MAN! <|:)~

[hole_n_one]

I can't wait until the keywords are Carville and dung beetle.......

[green team 1999]

[ovrtaxt]

I agree. Creationism makes a lot more sense than evolution. It took me a while to come to that conclusion, but after I broke free of the government school indoctrination it all came together.

[medved]

The argentinian teratorn was a 200-lb eagle:

---

That is known to be impossible in our present world. The biggest eagle you will ever see in our present world would be one of the largest berkuts, such as Atlanta, seen here with Sam Barnes:

Barnes is a big man, around 6-7 or so, 300 lbs., and you can judge for yourself Atlanta's size from the picture. A Kirghis khan gave Atlanta to Barnes around 1970 because she had flounce, for which no cure existed in the CCCP, and would have died shortly. Barnes had meds for that back in England.

Atlanta at 24 lbs. or thereabouts is as big as berkuts ever get. The khan told Barnes that they only got one or two that size every fifty years or so and that a bird that size if healthy, would be worth more than a dozen of the most beautiful women in Kirghiz. They raise berkuts in Kirghiz partly to kill wolves and while, a wolf would be just a day at the office for Atlanta, it's a major undertaking for a more normal sized berkut at 14 - 17 lbs, and the wolf sometimes wins. Therefore it would be a huge advantage if they could breed them to an AVERAGE of 24 lbs., i.e. have a small one be 20 lbs. and a big one be 35 lbs., but it cannot be done. When they get past 25 lbs, they start to have insurmountable problems with takeoffs and landings.

That's in our gravity of course. The Argentinian teratorn did not have that problem.

[parsifal]

There have been live pteradactyl sightings in Texas in the last couple of decades. Are we sure these things are extinct? parsy.

[Vidalia]

Searching for tax monies, Daschleo-Gephardo-thorus probably glided low over the middle class of the country, its lower cerebellum skimming the surface of lies and mismanagement, ready to nab any tasty tax increases or crusty middle-classeans it encountered, said Kellner, whose findings were not unusual....

OK, somebody sue me for lying...

[Nebullis]

The article calls this the modern analog.

[Maceman]

a big flying reptile

Dinosaurs were not reptiles. Reptiles are cold blooded, and the idea that dinosaurs were warm blooded has been generally accepted since the 1980s at least.