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True story: when I was a kid, I wanted to be a paleontologist. Sure, most kids go through a dinosaur phase, but mine went a lot deeper than that. I actually went on legitimate fossil digs, and everything. Somewhere in the bowels of Melbourne Museum is a massive bone that I spent days slowly uncovering, back in the late ’70s.
Unfortunately, I never got to find any new species and thus I was denied the chance to bestow a really cool moniker on some ancient creature. Like Skorpiovenator (which, despite its cool sound, just refers to the fact that this dinosaur’s fossil was discovered next to a nest of live scorpions), or Khaan! (which doesn’t really have the exclamation mark, but sounds like it should).
Then there’s Dromornis Planei, whose unofficial nickname is “The Demon Duck of Doom”. A fitting name for an eight-foot-tall carnivorous flightless bird.
Finally, there’s a new species of pterosaur (flying reptile – they weren’t true dinosaurs) who doesn’t need a nickname – not when its official name literally translates as “dragon of death”.
The dragon of death lived between 146 million and 66 million years ago – or 20 million years before a catastrophic asteroid struck the earth. A new species of azhdarchid, a kind of pterosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, it was likely one of the first predators to hunt from the skies.
“Azhdarchids were known for their very large skulls – sometimes larger than their bodies – as well as their hyper-elongated necks and short, robust bodies,” [scientist] Leonardo D Ortiz David explained to Live Science.
To make things even more exciting, Ortiz and his team didn’t find just one Thanatosdrakon amaru in Argentina, but two. The first, which appears to be an adult, has a wingspan of 30 feet. The second, which appears to be a juvenile, has a smaller wingspan of 23 feet. Researchers are unsure, however, if the two are related.
All That’s Interesting
Its inherent coolness aside, the Dragon of Death is also giving scientists a lot of new insights into pterosaurs as an order of living creatures. One we still don’t know a great deal about.
“Pterosaurs were a very unique group of animals that lived from the Triassic to the Cretaceous period and represent the first vertebrates to acquire the ability to actively fly,” said Universidad Nacional de Cuyo paleontologist Leonardo Ortiz David and his colleagues from Argentina and Brazil […]
“Thanatosdrakon amaru is represented by several well-preserved axial and appendicular bones in three dimensions,” the researchers explained.
“Some of these elements have never been described in giant azhdarchids (eg complete norarium, dorsosacral vertebrae and caudal vertebra).
“This allows to expand the knowledge about the anatomy of this diverse group of pterosaurs.
“Finally, from a paleoecological point of view, Thanatosdrakon amaru was found in floodplain deposits of ephemeral meandering systems indicating that this large flying species inhabited continental environments,” they added.
Sci-News
Well, when you’re a dragon of death, I guess you get to inhabit pretty much anywhere you want to inhabit.
