A research team, led by scientists from the Dinosaur Research Museum and Laboratory of the College of Exact and Natural Sciences in Mendoza, western Argentina, was able to reveal a new type of predatory flying reptile that dominated the skies of the South American continent about 85 million years ago.

According to the new study, which was published by the team in the journal Cretaceous Research and an official press release was issued by the college on May 26, the team found the fossils of two individuals of this new type of flying reptile in the Plottier Formation. At a distance of about 800 kilometers outside the city of Mendoza.

The fossils found by this team were represented in the humerus bones, the dorsal vertebrae, some parts of the toes, the ulna region, the forearm bones, the thigh bones and the pelvis. The fossils were in an ideal state of preservation for some of these parts.

Flying reptiles or pterosaurs are not considered dinosaurs (Wikipedia)

Heaven's Kings

Flying reptiles or pterosaurs are not considered dinosaurs, but organisms that lived with dinosaurs from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous period (225 to 65.5 million years ago).

There are more than 100 known species of pterosaurs, and they were predators.

Pterosaurs are also the oldest known vertebrates capable of flight. Their wings consisted of a thin but strong skin membrane, muscles, and other tissues extending from the legs to 4 fingers that protrude from the wing.

They have long, fully serrated jaws and relatively long tails.

According to the new study, the discovered fossils belong to a family of pterosaurs called "Azhdarchids" (a word from Persian mythology meaning "dragon") that lived during the late Cretaceous period, and included some of the largest flying reptiles ever known, distinguished by their very long legs and necks.

Azhdarchids were the largest flying reptiles ever known (Wikipedia)

death dragon

The new species was named Thanatosdrakon amaru, the first part of which means "dragon of death" and the second part related to the species (amaru) means "flying serpent" in the Quechua culture, a language family that arose in the Andes mountains in the western part of South America.

According to the study, this type of flying reptile was the largest in size in the South American sky at that period, as the width of the two specimens discovered at the wing was 7 and 9 meters in full, and a length close to the length of a giraffe, and it seems that it was really the dragon of death for those ages.

This research team is currently trying to find a relationship between these two individuals, and to understand the causes of their death, and it is believed that they were part of a large family team, and for some reason they fell to the ground together and died instantly.