Scientists have found evidence that the "flying dragon" - known to have hovered above the skies of the northern hemisphere - also landed in Chile, a report in the British Independent newspaper reported.

The dinosaur belongs to the group of extinct flying reptiles that roamed the Earth 160 million years ago.

The fossil of the so-called flying dragon was discovered in the Atacama Desert in South America.

A Chilean fossil was found in the Atacama Desert in 2009 (French)

The Ramvorenki family has landed south

This is the first time that evidence of a Jurassic period reptile with a long tail, wings and sharp, prominent teeth has been found in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Chilean fossil was discovered by Osvaldo Rojas, director of the Atakama Desert Museum of National History and Culture in Cirritos Bayos, Chile, in 2009.

The researchers later found that the remains of the unknown species belonged to flying reptiles from the Jurassic period.

The analysis showed that the dragon was part of the subfamily Rhamphorhynchinae, according to the University of Chile, which has researched the bone remains.

The university said it was the first specimen of the Ramvorenki subfamily discovered in the Southern Hemisphere.

Jonathan Alarcón, who led the study of the remains, said that discoveries from this group usually come from Europe, and skeletal remains found in Chile showed that the spread of the animals of this group was more widespread than was known until now.

Flying reptiles have also been discovered in Cuba, Australia and Canada (Getty Images)

Close links and possible immigration

This discovery points to close links and possible migration between the northern and southern hemispheres, at a time when most of the world's southern land masses were believed to be linked on a supercontinent called Gondwana.

"There are also flying reptiles of this group in Cuba, which appear to have been coastal animals, so most likely they migrated north-south or may have come at some time in the past and stayed there," said Mr. Alarcon of the University of Chile.

Details of the discovery were published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, and in 2019 a 96 million-year-old flying reptile skeleton was discovered in Australia.

In the same year, a flying reptile found buried in ice in Canada was identified as a new species among the largest flying animals in history.