New Type of Pterosaur Discovered in National Park

A new pterosaur, a type of flying reptile dinosaur, has just been discovered by scientists led by researchers from the Smithsonian.

The jawbone of the creature was first found in the United States during 2011, and it was perceived to be an already discovered species. However, modern technology has revealed that this bone has no connection to any other dinosaur, meaning it is an entirely new animal.

Of course, since the team found this first, they had dibs on naming it, so long as the name appropiately. They have named it the Eotephradactylus mcintirae, meaning “ash-winged dawn goddess”.

Modern tech has caused the bone to be believed to be about 209 million years old. If this is true, that would mean that the bone belongs to the earliest instance of a pterosaur in North America.

“The bones of Triassic pterosaurs are small, thin, and often hollow, so they get destroyed before they get fossilised,” says Dr. Kligman, a scientist working on the project. The pterosaur itself is to be small and light, about the size of a seagull.

The bone was originally found in the Petrified Forest, a national park in the United States. Also unearthed from the site were collections of bones, teeth, fish scale, and even fossilized feces. The discovered teeth of the species in particular were helpful, as they showed the research team what and how the animal ate.

Dr. Kligman stated that the dinosaur had an “unusually high degree of wear at their tips,” suggesting that it may have fed a lot on something with hard body parts.

You need a conclusion