1 week Ago By Millie Turner
A NEW species of Pterosaur - a giant, flying, carnivorous reptile - has been discovered in the Australian outback. Kevin Peterson, who has a deep interest in paleontology, found the bones in 2021 while hunting for gold. The fossilised remains reveal a "fearsome" reptilian beast with an enormous 15ft wingspan, roughly the height of a giraffe.
It has been classified as Haliskia peterseni , a new genus and species of the anhanguerian pterosaur. “With a wingspan of approximately 15ft, Haliskia would have been a fearsome predator around 100million years ago when much of central western Queensland was underwater,” Adele Pentland from the Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences who led the research team said in a statement. Anhanguerians are known to inhabit regions that we now call Brazil, England, Morocco, China, Spain, and the United States.
Pterosaurs - often called pterodactyls - were a group of bird-like reptiles that roamed Earth during the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous period. They were are distinct from archaeopteryx, the early ancestors of birds we know today. Pterosaurs are known for their diverse sizes and adaptations.
They can range from small, birdlike creatures to massive predators with wingspans more than 32 feet. The teeth of early pterosaurs suggests they used to feed on insects, before shifting to a diet of meat and fish over several million years. The discovery of a previously unknown species of pterosaur that thrived 100million years a.
