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A new species of pterosaur, the first vertebrate capable of flight, over 200 million years old, has been discovered in the United States, showcasing the incredible diversity of these fearsome creatures, reports Popular Mechanics.
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“There are few pterosaur fossils. These are animals with a fine system of organs for movement that can fly. Their bones have disappeared over time,” said Brooks Britt from Brigham Young University, the lead author of the study published on Monday in the journal Ecology & Evolution.
Pterosaurs, which appeared about 225 million years ago, ruled the skies for over 160 million years, until the end of the Cretaceous period, when they completely vanished, just like their relatives, the dinosaurs.
Unlike most pterosaur fossils, Caelestiventus hanseni is “very well” preserved. Notably, its long, narrow skull is 18 cm high, with a large jaw containing many teeth.
“It had about 112 teeth, and in the front part of the jaw, it had sharp teeth like canines,” Britt said.
This flying reptile, commonly referred to as a “pterodactyl,” is 210-201 million years old and was found in Utah, in the western United States.
This discovery confirms that pterosaurs lived in many areas at the very beginning of their development and that they could adapt to different environments.
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This helped them to “survive the mass extinction at the end of the Triassic (about 200 million years ago) when half of the species living at that time disappeared,” the study emphasizes.
