Researchers find a `fearsome dragon' that soared over outback Queensland


Date:
August 9, 2021
Source:
University of Queensland
Summary:
Australia's largest flying reptile has been uncovered, a pterosaur
with an estimated seven-meter wingspan that soared like a dragon
above the ancient, vast inland sea once covering much of outback
Queensland.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Australia's largest flying reptile has been uncovered, a pterosaur with
an estimated seven-metre wingspan that soared like a dragon above the
ancient, vast inland sea once covering much of outback Queensland.


========================================================================== University of Queensland PhD candidate Tim Richards, from the Dinosaur
Lab in UQ's School of Biological Sciences, led a research team that
analysed a fossil of the creature's jaw, discovered on Wanamara Country,
near Richmond in North West Queensland.

"It's the closest thing we have to a real life dragon," Mr Richards said.

"The new pterosaur, which we named Thapunngaka shawi, would have been
a fearsome beast, with a spear-like mouth and a wingspan around seven
metres.

"It was essentially just a skull with a long neck, bolted on a pair of
long wings.

"This thing would have been quite savage.



==========================================================================
"It would have cast a great shadow over some quivering little dinosaur
that wouldn't have heard it until it was too late." Mr Richards said
the skull alone would have been just over one metre long, containing
around 40 teeth, perfectly suited to grasping the many fishes known to
inhabit Queensland's no-longer-existent Eromanga Sea.

"It's tempting to think it may have swooped like a magpie during mating
season, making your local magpie swoop look pretty trivial -- no amount
of zip ties would have saved you.

"Though, to be clear, it was nothing like a bird, or even a bat --
Pterosaurs were a successful and diverse group of reptiles -- the very
first back-boned animals to take a stab at powered flight." The new
species belonged to a group of pterosaurs known as anhanguerians, which inhabited every continent during the latter part of the Age of Dinosaurs.



========================================================================== Being perfectly adapted to powered flight, pterosaurs had thin-walled
and relatively hollow bones.

Given these adaptations their fossilised remains are rare and often
poorly preserved.

"It's quite amazing fossils of these animals exist at all," Mr Richards
said.

"By world standards, the Australian pterosaur record is poor, but
the discovery of Thapunngaka contributes greatly to our understanding
of Australian pterosaur diversity." It is only the third species of anhanguerian pterosaur known from Australia, with all three species
hailing from western Queensland.

Dr Steve Salisbury, co-author on the paper and Mr Richard's PhD
supervisor, said what was particularly striking about this new species
of anhanguerian was the massive size of the bony crest on its lower jaw,
which it presumably had on the upper jaw as well.

"These crests probably played a role in the flight dynamics of these
creatures, and hopefully future research will deliver more definitive
answers," Dr Salisbury said.

The fossil was found in a quarry just northwest of Richmond in June
2011 by Len Shaw, a local fossicker who has been 'scratching around'
in the area for decades.

The name of the new species honours the First Nations peoples of the
Richmond area where the fossil was found, incorporating words from the now-extinct language of the Wanamara Nation.

"The genus name, Thapunngaka, incorporates thapun [ta-boon] and ngaka
[nga-ga], the Wanamara words for 'spear' and 'mouth', respectively,"
Dr Salisbury said.

"The species name, shawi, honours the fossil's discoverer Len Shaw, so
the name means 'Shaw's spear mouth'." The fossil of Thapunngaka shawi
is on display at Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Queensland. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Timothy M. Richards, Paul E. Stumkat, Steven W. Salisbury. A
new species
of crested pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea, Anhangueridae) from the
Lower Cretaceous (upper Albian) of Richmond, North West Queensland,
Australia.

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2021; e1946068 DOI: 10.1080/
02724634.2021.1946068 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210809100448.htm

--- up 13 weeks, 3 days, 22 hours, 45 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)