They find a flying dinosaur described as a “scary dragon” in Australia

A group of Australian scientists developed a . discovered the remains of flying giant dinosaurhandjob Described as a “scary dragon”, which flew over Australian territory during this period CretaceousEducational sources gave this information on Tuesday.

With a seven-meter-long wingspan and a lance-shaped snout, this new Plateosaurus “would have been a fearsome animal,” said Tim Richards, leader of the University of Queensland team that studied this reptile, in a statement to the institute. Australian. .

NS thaapungka saviAs the prehistoric animal was named, it is “the closest thing to a dragon in real life,” said Richards, who is seeking a doctorate at the University of Queensland.

The description of this pletosaurus was based on the analysis of a jaw fossil discovered in June 2011 by local Len Shaw on the land of the Wanamara people, in a far northern region of the state of Queensland in eastern Australia.

Scientists estimate that this dinosaur’s skull was about a meter long and was equipped with a set of 40 molars that allowed it to feed on large fish that lived in the ancient Eromanga Sea during the Cretaceous, which began 145 million years ago. Had happened. ended 66 million years ago.

Thapungaka shavi, believed to have been the first animal to fly with bones in the back and fully adapted for powered flight, was relatively hollow, thin-walled bone fragments, scientists say.

Steve Salisbury, a co-author of the paper and Richard’s PhD supervisor, sheds light on the enormous size of the bony ridge of the lower jaw, which was probably similar to the upper jaw of this Plateosaurus, the largest ever described in Australia.

According to the scientist “the ridges probably played a role in the flight dynamics of these creatures.”

The name of this flying dinosaur comes from ngaka (nga-ga) and thapun (ta-bun), which in the language of the Wanamara’s aboriginal people mean “mouth” and “spear”, respectively, while the shwi surname derives from its Finder.

With information from EFE.

llh