The University of Southampton in the UK has announced the discovery of new fossil of a species of flying reptiles known as pterosaurs. The 68 million year old fossilized bones were found in the Transylvanian Basin, from the Late Cretaceous rocks of Sebeş-Glod. The Transylvanian Basin is world renowned for containing many fossilized remains of mammals turtles, lizards and ancient decedents of crocodiles.
The new species is named Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis and a paper about the findings was published in the international science journal, PLOS One. "Eurazhdarcho belong to a group of pterosaurs called the azhdarchids. These were long-necked, long-beaked pterosaurs whose wings were strongly adapted for a soaring lifestyle. Several features of their wing and hind limb bones show that they could fold their wings up and walk on all fours when needed," said Dr. Darren Naish of the University of Southampton's Vertebrate Paleontology Research Group.
"With a three-metre wingspan, Eurazhdarcho would have been large, but not gigantic. This is true of many of the animals so far discovered in Romania; they were often unusually small compared to their relatives elsewhere," said Naish who assisted in classifying the new species.
So far, the new discovery supports the long time disputed behavior of the azhdarchid kind of creatures found in Europe. "Experts have argued for years over the lifestyle and behavior of azhdarchids. It has been suggested that they grabbed prey from the water while in flight, that they patrolled wetlands and hunted in a heron or stork-like fashion, or that they were like gigantic sandpipers, hunting by pushing their long bills into mud," according to Dr. Gareth Dyke in the report. Gareth is the Senior Lecturer in Vertebrate Paleontology, at the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton.
"One of the newest ideas is that azhdarchids walked through forests, plains and other places in search of small animal prey. Eurazhdarcho supports this view of azhdarchids, since these fossils come from an inland, continental environment where there were forests and plains as well as large, meandering rivers and swampy regions," said Dyke.
The discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, the Transylvanian Museum Society in Romania and the National Museum of Brazil in Rio Janiero, Brazil.
