Fossilised remains of a fearsome winged dinosaur that lived around 90 million years ago have been identified as a new species of pterosaur in the Australian state of Queensland.
The partial skeleton fragments were found by a local grazier near the outback town of Winton in 2017 and have now been verified by paleontologists.
It’s the largest pterosaur specimen found in Australia to date.
Parts of the skull, five vertebrae and elements of its wings were recovered.
Read more:
The T-Rex was a ‘smooth operator’
Four-legged whale with hooves discovered in Peru
“It would have been a sight to see,” Adele Pentland from Swinburne University, and lead author of a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, told The Guardian.
“It has a wingspan of about four metres, which is pretty big compared to our modern-day birds.
“Even though we didn’t find the entire skull, we found most of the skull and we also found 40 teeth and two fragments at the site. To see it walking around on the ground it would have walked on four legs and looked really different to any kind of animal we have today.
“It’s kind of scary when you think their heads are disproportionately large, it would have had a skull maybe 60cm,” she said.
“We found out that this pterosaur is more closely related to material which has been found in England [and] that was a bit of a surprise.
“We are seeing that pattern because they could disperse across the ocean pretty easily.”
The species name honours former Winton Shire mayor Graham Thomas ‘Butch’ Lenton, in recognition of his service to the Winton community and support to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Museum, the study’s report states.
