Latest news with #Eotephradactylus
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
200 million year-old flying reptile species found
Scientists have discovered a new species of pterosaur – a flying reptile that soared above the dinosaurs more than 200 million years ago. The jawbone of the ancient reptile was unearthed in Arizona back in 2011, but modern scanning techniques have now revealed details showing that it belongs to a species new to science. The research team, led by scientists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, has named the creature Eotephradactylus mcintireae, meaning "ash-winged dawn goddess". It is a reference to the volcanic ash that helped preserve its bones in an ancient riverbed. Details of the discovery are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. At about 209 million years old, this is now believed to be the earliest pterosaur to be found in North America. "The bones of Triassic pterosaurs are small, thin, and often hollow, so they get destroyed before they get fossilised," explained Dr Kligman. The site of this discovery is a fossil bed in a desert landscape of ancient rock in the Petrified Forest National Park. More than 200 million years ago, this place was a riverbed, and layers of sediment gradually trapped and preserved bones, scales and other evidence of life at the time. The river ran through the central region of what was the supercontinent of Pangaea, which was formed from all of Earth's landmasses. BBC Sounds: 200 years of dinosaur science Fossil of largest Jurassic pterosaur found on Skye Dragon Prince dinosaur rewrites T-rex family tree The pterosaur jaw is just one part of a collection of fossils found at the same site, including bones, teeth, fish scales and even fossilised poo (also known as coprolites). Dr Kligman said: "Our ability to recognise pterosaur bones in [these ancient] river deposits suggests there may be other similar deposits from Triassic rocks around the world that may also preserve pterosaur bones." Studying the pterosaur's teeth also provided clues about what the seagull-sized winged reptile would have eaten. "They have an unusually high degree of wear at their tips," explained Dr Kligman. suggesting that this pterosaur was feeding on something with hard body parts." The most likely prey, he told BBC News, were primitive fish that would have been covered in an armour of boney scales. Scientists say the site of the discovery has preserved a "snapshot" of an ecosystem where groups of animals that are now extinct, including giant amphibians and ancient armoured crocodile relatives, lived alongside animals that we could recognise today, including frogs and turtles. This fossil bed, Dr Kligman said, has preserved evidence of an evolutionary "transition" 200 million years ago. "We see groups that thrived later living alongside older animals that [didn't] make it past the Triassic. "Fossil beds like these enable us to establish that all of these animals actually lived together."
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
Winged reptile so small it could perch on your shoulder identified from AZ fossil
A fossil from a seagull-sized winged reptile that lived millions of years ago was found in Arizona, and the creature has now been identified as a new species. The new type of pterosaur, named Eotephradactylus mcintireae, was identified by a Smithsonian-led research team, according to a July 7 news release from the institution. It's known as the 'ash-winged dawn goddess.' The creature 'would have been small enough to comfortably perch on a person's shoulder,' per Smithsonian officials. It also had 'a long jaw with several types of teeth for different purposes,' including curved fangs for grabbing prey and blade-like teeth for slicing it up, paleontologist Ben Kligman said in a July 8 email to McClatchy News. He said the pterosaur likely feasted on 'primitive fish related to living gar.' Researchers — including Kligman, a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History — documented the new species in a study published July 7 in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS, or Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. First occurrence The pterosaur's jawbone with teeth came from a remote area in northeastern Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park, Smithsonian officials said. The site also contained numerous other fossils from different creatures, including 'an ancient turtle with spike-like armor,' according to Smithsonian officials. 'These fossils, which date back to the late Triassic period around 209 million years ago, preserve a snapshot of a dynamic ecosystem where older groups of animals, including giant amphibians and armored crocodile relatives, lived alongside evolutionary upstarts like frogs, turtles and pterosaurs,' Smithsonian officials said. Kligman noted in his email that 'the presence of the pterosaur Eotephradactylus living and interacting in a community alongside groups like frogs, lizard relatives, and turtles is the first occurrence of this community type in the fossil record.' Those groups were found living together in later eras, he said, but not before a massive extinction event that killed about three-quarters of species on the planet about 201 million years ago. That 'means that the assembly of modern vertebrate communities was not the direct result of the end-Triassic extinction, and had been taking place well before it,' he said. Stands out During Eotephradactylus mcintireae's time, the fossil site area 'was positioned in the middle of Pangaea and sat just above the equator,' according to Smithsonian officials, who noted that 'the semi-arid environment was crisscrossed by small river channels and likely prone to seasonal floods' that sent ash and sediment into the channels. The creatures found in the site were likely buried in such a flood, Smithsonian officials said. The site was discovered several years ago, and the pterosaur jaw fossil was eventually uncovered by Suzanne McIntire, a longtime volunteer in the Smithsonian's FossiLab, Smithsonian officials said. The new species was named partly for her. The ash-winged dawn goddess is the oldest-known pterosaur in North America, according to Smithsonian officials. Kligman said 'a big part of why (it) stands out is that it was found fossilized in sediments deposited in a river. Most early pterosaurs are found in oceanic sediments. We hope that our (study's) recognition of pterosaurs from new environments of the Pangaean continent will help future researchers in the search for more of these rare fossils.' Kay Behrensmeyer from the Smithsonian and Robin Whatley from Columbia College Chicago were study co-leads. Other authors were Jahandar Ramezani, Adam D. Marsh, Tyler R. Lyson, Adam J. Fitch and William G. Parker.
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Science
- Indian Express
Scientists discover 200-million-year-old flying reptile species
Nearly 200 million years ago, large flying reptile species or pterosaurs, used to fly above dinosaurs. Scientists discovered the jaw of a pterosaur in Arizona sometime in 2013; however, now they have ascertained that it is an entirely new species. They made this discovery with the help of modern scanning technology. The reptile species has been named as Eotephradactylus mcintireae which means 'ash-winged dawn goddess'. The volcanic ash is said to have preserved the reptile's bones on the ancient riverbed. The creature was named by a team of researchers from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Experts predict that the fossil of the pterosaur is 209 million years old and currently believe it to be the oldest pterosaur to be discovered in North America. The jaw of the pterosaur is just one part of the collection of fossils found in the archaeological site; the fossils include bones, teeth, fish scales, and even fossilised dung (which is known as coprolites). 'The bones of Triassic pterosaurs are small, thin, and often hollow, so they get destroyed before they get fossilised,' Dr Kligman told the BBC. The site area was a riverbed more than 200 million years ago; scales, bones, and other signs of life were progressively trapped and preserved by layers of sediment. To understand more about the creature, experts studied its teeth to narrow down what the seagull-sized reptile would have eaten during its existence. Dr Kligman told the publication that they have an unusually high degree of wear at their tips. This evidence shows that the creature was feeding on something with hard body parts. Their most likely prey were primitive fish that would have had hard scale armour covering them. The Triassic pterosaur was discovered in the desert landscape amid ancient rocks in the present day Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. Scientists say that the site where they found the creature's fossils had preserved the 'snapshot' of the ecosystem. They also found groups of animals that now are extinct. The other ancient creatures that they found include ancient armoured crocodile relatives and amphibians. And some creatures that can be recognised today, like frogs and turtles.
USA Today
4 days ago
- Science
- USA Today
Pterosaur fossils discovered in Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park
Tucked away in a remote bonebed in Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park laid hundreds of fossils, including a fragile jawbone belonging to one of the oldest-known flying reptiles: the pterosaur. The discovery of the oldest flying vertebrate in North America by a group of researchers fills a gap in the fossil record proving that pterosaurs coexisted with frogs, turtles and older groups of animals like giant amphibians. The recently discovered fossils date back to the late Triassic period – about 209 million years ago, scientists said. The discovery of at least 16 vertebrate species includes seven previously unknown species. Paleontologist Ben Kligman of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History led the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Kligman told USA TODAY the initial motivation of this field work was to find layers of rock that might preserve early mammal fossils. "As so often happens in the field of paleontology: you go looking for one thing and you find something totally different." said Kligman. These fossils, which date back to the late Triassic period, provide a snapshot in time of a once dynamic ecosystem of different species living together. The fossil site is also key for understanding the evolutionary origins of both turtles and pterosaurs, Kligman added. "The site captures the transition to more modern terrestrial vertebrate communities where we start seeing groups that thrive later in the Mesozoic living alongside these older animals that don't make it past the Triassic," according to Kligman. Where was the pterosaur discovered? The Petrified Forest National Park in Northeast Arizona is known for producing fossils of plants and animals from the Triassic time period, Reuters reported. Remains of the pterosaur along with primitive frogs, lizard-like reptiles and one of the oldest-known turtles were all discovered in the national park. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to achieve powered flight, followed much later by birds and bats, Reuters reported. The oldest-known fossils of these seagull-sized reptiles were found in Europe and date back to around 215 million years, researchers said. But pterosaurs are thought to have appeared even further back – roughly 230 million years ago, around the same time as the earliest dinosaurs. The newly identified pterosaur – Eotephradactylus mcintire – is named after Suzanne McIntire, who discovered the fossil after it has been brought to Smithsonian's FossiLab along with 1,200 other individual fossils. "What was exciting about uncovering this specimen was that the teeth were still in the bone, so I knew the animal would be much easier to identify," McIntire said in a statement. The name means 'ash-winged dawn goddess,' and refers to the fossil site's volcanic ash and the animals' position near the base of the pterosaur evolutionary tree, according to a statement from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The Triassic era came on the heels of Earth's biggest mass extinction 252 million years ago, and then ended with another mass extinction 201 million years ago that wiped out many of the major competitors to the dinosaurs, according to Reuters. While frogs and turtles are still around today, pterosaurs dominated the skies until the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that ended the age of dinosaurs, Reuters reported. How large was the pterosaur? The pterosaur's wingspan was about three feet and its skull was about four inches long. It had curved fangs at the front of its mouth for grabbing fish as it flew over rivers, and blade-like teeth in the back of the jaw for slicing prey, Reuters reported. The researchers said Eotephradactylus would have had a tail, as all the early pterosaurs did. Contributing: Will Dunham, Reuters
NDTV
5 days ago
- Science
- NDTV
Scientists Find 200 Million-Year-Old Flying Reptile Species
Scientists have found a new species of pterosaur that lived 200 million years ago along with the dinosaurs. The fossilised jawbone of the creature was unearthed by scientists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in 2011. They have now identified the fossil as the oldest known species of the pterosaur in North America. The scientists have named the pterosaur, Eotephradactylus mcintireae, which means "ash-winged dawn goddess," referring to the volcanic ash that helped preserve its bones. The name also honours volunteer Suzanne McIntire, who discovered the jawbone. "What was exciting about uncovering this specimen was that the teeth were still in the bone, so I knew the animal would be much easier to identify," McIntire said as quoted by The Independent. The pterosaur is approximately 209 million years old, dating back to the late Triassic period, and was found in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. Modern micro-CT scanning helped scientists to learn anatomical traits unique to pterosaurs, which confirmed that it was a new species. Eotephradactylus mcintireae was about the size of a small seagull, with winged reptiles likely feeding on armoured fish, as indicated by the heavy wear on its preserved teeth. This discovery fills a gap in the sparse Triassic pterosaur record, providing fresh insight into early powered flight and suggesting that similar Triassic rock deposits worldwide may contain pterosaur fossils. "The bones of Triassic pterosaurs are small, thin, and often hollow, so they get destroyed before they get fossilised," palaeontologist Ben Kligman of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington told BBC. "Our ability to recognise pterosaur bones in [these ancient] river deposits suggests there may be other similar deposits from Triassic rocks around the world that may also preserve pterosaur bones."
