The newly discovered species of pterosaur, which lived around 100 million years ago, had a 4.6-metre wingspan and would have hunted fish and cephalopods. <\/p>
The fossilised remains of a prehistoric<\/a> creature discovered in western Queensland in 2021 have been identified as belonging to a new species of pterosaur.<\/strong><\/p> The formidable flying reptile, which lived alongside the dinosaurs<\/a>, has been named Haliskia peterseni<\/em>.<\/p> \u201cWith a wingspan of approximately 4.6 metres,\u00a0Haliskia<\/em>\u00a0would have been a fearsome predator,” says curator at the Kronosaurus Korner<\/a> museum Kevin Petersen, who found the bones.<\/p> Haliskia peterseni<\/em> lived around 100 million years ago when much of central western Queensland was underwater. <\/p> Based on the shape of its skull, arrangement of teeth and the shoulder bone, a research team \u2013 led by Adele Pentland, PhD student from Curtin\u2019s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences<\/a> \u2013 identified the specimen as an anhanguerian pterosaur, a group of flying lizards that lived across the world.<\/p> Thanks to Petersen’s careful preparation, the remains \u2013 which include the lower jaws, the tip of the upper jaw, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, bones from both wings and part of a leg \u2013 form the most complete specimen of any pterosaur ever discovered in Australia, says Pentland.<\/p> “Also present are very thin and delicate throat bones, indicating a muscular tongue, which helped during feeding on fish<\/a> and cephalopods<\/a>,\u201d Pentland adds.<\/p> Haliskia peterseni<\/em>\u00a0joins a number of other significant marine fossil specimens on display at Kronosaurus Korner, including\u00a0Kronosaurus queenslandicus<\/em>, the largest marine reptile, the most complete plesiosaur from Australia and bones from the plesiosaur\u00a0Eromangasaurus<\/em>\u00a0and the ichthyosaur\u00a0Platypterygius<\/em>.<\/p> Petersen says this latest discovery was an exciting boost for science, education and regional tourism.<\/p> \u201cI\u2019m thrilled that my discovery is a new species, as my passion lies in helping shape our modern knowledge of prehistoric species,\u201d Petersen says.<\/p> The full study\u00a0\u2018Haliskia peterseni, a new anhanguerian pterosaur from the late Early Cretaceous of Australia\u2019<\/em>\u00a0was published in the journal\u00a0Scientific Reports\/Springer Nature<\/em>.<\/p> Main image: illustration of Haliskia peterseni. Credit: Gabriel Ugueto<\/em><\/p> More prehistoric content:<\/strong><\/p> The newly discovered species of pterosaur, which lived around 100 million years ago, had a 4.6-metre wingspan and would have hunted fish and cephalopods. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":39019,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/giant-octopus-eating-lizard-discovered-in-australia-was-a-fearsome-predator-say-scientists.jpg",1476,915,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/giant-octopus-eating-lizard-discovered-in-australia-was-a-fearsome-predator-say-scientists-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/giant-octopus-eating-lizard-discovered-in-australia-was-a-fearsome-predator-say-scientists-300x186.jpg",300,186,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/giant-octopus-eating-lizard-discovered-in-australia-was-a-fearsome-predator-say-scientists-768x476.jpg",768,476,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/giant-octopus-eating-lizard-discovered-in-australia-was-a-fearsome-predator-say-scientists-1024x635.jpg",800,496,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/giant-octopus-eating-lizard-discovered-in-australia-was-a-fearsome-predator-say-scientists.jpg",1476,915,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/giant-octopus-eating-lizard-discovered-in-australia-was-a-fearsome-predator-say-scientists.jpg",1476,915,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The newly discovered species of pterosaur, which lived around 100 million years ago, had a 4.6-metre wingspan and would have hunted fish and cephalopods.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/39018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"