Gabriel Ugueto/Curtin University
Artist’s impression of Haliskia peterseni
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An amateur paleontologist has discovered a new species of pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs about 100 million years ago.
Kevin Petersen, an avocado farmer and curator of the Kronosaurus Korner Fossil Museum in northwest Queensland, Australia, discovered a series of fossilized bones in western Queensland in 2021.
These have since been identified as belonging to Haliskia peterseni, a new genus and species of pterosaur, according to a statement published in the journal Scientific Reports on Wednesday by the Curtin University of Perth team that led the research.
“With a wingspan of approximately 4.6 m, Galicia would have been a fearsome predator about 100 million years ago, when much of central western Queensland was underwater, covered by a vast inland sea and globally located roughly where the southern coast of Victoria is today,” lead study author Adele Pentland, PhD candidate at the Curtin’s School. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, he said in a statement.
The giant creature was the first vertebrate to develop the ability to fly and lived alongside the dinosaurs during the Mesozoic Era, which began about 252 million years ago.
“Pterosaurs are winged reptiles that had a wing made of a skin membrane, so they resemble a bat in some ways, but they are very different and otherworldly in terms of the shape of their head,” Pentland told CNN.
Haliskia would have hunted fish and squid-like cephalopods in the inland sea, which was also home to large marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, but would have had to come onto land to lay eggs, Pentland told CNN.
They would have been prey for large marine reptiles such as Kronosaurus, whose skull alone would have measured 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) in length, she added.
“Haliskia wouldn’t stand a chance against such an animal,” Pentland said.
Since the 1980s, fewer than 25 sets of pterosaur remains belonging to four species have been found in Australia, while more than 100 sets have been found in Brazil and Argentina.
While searching for Haliskia, Petersen found the most complete specimen of any pterosaur discovered in Australia to date, Pentland said in a statement, praising Petersen for his “careful preparation” of the remains.
“Galicia is 22 percent complete, making it more than twice as complete as the only other known partial pterosaur skeleton found in Australia,” she said, adding that it included “a complete lower jaw, tip of upper jaw, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, bones from both wings and leg parts.’
It also included “very thin and delicate neck bones, suggesting a muscular tongue, which helped feed on fish and cephalopods,” she added.
Pentland told CNN that she “didn’t expect the specimen to be as complete as it was.”
The fossil will join the collection at the Kronosaurus Korner, and Petersen said he is thrilled with the find.
“I am thrilled that my discovery is a new species, as my passion lies in helping to shape our modern knowledge of prehistoric species,” he said in a statement.
In addition, Pentland will continue to work with regional museums in Australia to describe the new fossil material, as well as working with researchers in Brazil, CNN said.
In May 2023, another study led by Pentland found that pterosaurs were flying in the Australian skies as early as 107 million years ago.
Paleontologists came to this conclusion after examining two pieces of prehistoric bone extracted from Dinosaur Cove, a fossil site in the Australian state of Victoria, more than three decades ago.
According to a study published in the scientific journal History Biology, the specimens turned out to be the oldest pterosaur remains ever recovered in the country.