Dragon Fossil That Has A Body The Size Of A Double-Decker Bus Has Been Excavated By Researchers

JAKARTA - A team of researchers in Argentina found the fossilized remains of the largest pterosaur species ever explored in South America. Paleontologists dub it the Dragon of Death.

As per a study released online last April, paleontologists found a total of 40 bones and fragments. The large flying reptile that coexisted with the dinosaurs flew across the sky about 86 million years ago until the Cretaceous period.

According to estimates, his body length is about 30 feet, almost the size of an average double-decker bus in London. Most likely, Pterosaurs existed before birds and were one of the first creatures on Earth to use wings to hunt prey from the sky.

A team of paleontologists found the fossil in the Andes mountains in Argentina's western Mendoza province. They named the creature, Thanatosdrakon Amaru.

The bones and their fragments are preserved thanks to the rocks. The estimated date means these fearsome flying reptiles lived at least 20 million years before the asteroid impact in what is now Mexico's Yucatan peninsula wiped out three-quarters of life on the planet about 66 million years ago.

Project leader Leonardo Ortiz said the fossil's never-before-seen characteristics required new genus and species names, with the latter combining the ancient Greek words for death (Thanatos) and dragon (drakon).

"It seems appropriate to name it like that. It's the Dragon of Death," said Ortiz as quoted from Metro, Monday, June 6.

The researchers, who published their study last April in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research, say the large fossilized bones classify the new species as the largest pterosaur ever found in South America and one of the largest found anywhere.

"We don't have current records of close relatives even having body modifications that are similar to these animals," Ortiz explained.