New Species of Pterosaurs Discovered

Scientists in 2011 discovered a new jawbone of what was previously thought to be a pre-existing pterodactyl. Until recently, we have found that it is an entirely new species, one that might prove to be different from the rest. Scientists have named it Eotephradactylus.

This jawbone was discovered a long time ago, but we didn’t have the technology to determine if it represented a new species until now. Now we have the cutting-edge high-resolution 3D imaging, which can help us find out if it is a new fossil or not.

The project was led by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of History in Washington, DC. They found out that this is also one of the earliest pterosaurs to be found in North America at 209 years old. Maybe this is the pterosaur that will lead us to find out more things about these ancient creatures.

This creature of the sky was wiped out during the Cretaceous Period near a river bed. It was found today in the desert landscape of a national park known as the Petrified Forest. This area today is now a desert and full of, well, “petrified” tree stumps. After the dinosaur died, the body was covered with layers and layers of sediment, and it became the fossil that it is today.

Studying the pterosaur’s teeth, which were preserved along with the jawbone, helped scientists know more about the pterosaur and what it would have eaten. Scientists say that it most likely ate different types of fish and other small animals in the diverse ecosystem of the then-existent riverbed.

Dr. Ben Kligman is a paleontologist known for his fossil discoveries, who graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a school known for paleontology, particularly in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park.

Dr. Kligman said: “Our ability to recognize pterosaur bones in [these ancient] river deposits suggests there may be other similar deposits from Triassic rocks around the world that may also preserve pterosaur bones.” He notes that the fossil bed where the dinosaur was found shows evidence of an “evolutionary transition”.

In addition, Mr Kligman notes that, “They have an unusually high degree of wear at their tips, suggesting that this pterosaur was feeding on something with hard body parts.” This is important because it shows that this pterosaur might have had an edge over the other pterosaurs.

We are now waiting for more exciting news about this discovery.