The remains of a flying reptile that once soared over the Sahara desert have been found in Mexico.
These fossils belong to three new species of flying pterosaurs and it’s believed they are around 100 million years old.
Go back that far and the arid desert was a rich river delta full of life, including fish, crocodiles, turtles and several predatory dinosaurs.
Pterosaurs had wingspans of up to 13 feet (four metres) and snatched their prey using a set of large spike-like teeth.
They were the first winged vertebrates and lived among the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period.
But they, along with dinosaurs, were wiped out about 65 million years ago.
Fossil miners in a small village called Beggaa, just outside Erfoud in southwest Morocco, discovered the pterosaur remains.
A team of scientists led by Baylor University in Texas, US, and including the University of Portsmouth identified the new species from chunks of jaws with teeth.
One of the species – Anhanguera – was previously only known to be from Brazil.
Another – Ornithocheirus – had until now only been found in England and Middle Asia.
Lead author Megan Jacobs said: ‘Pterosaur remains are very rare, with most known from Europe, South America and Asia. These new finds are very exciting and provide a window into the world of pterosaurs in Cretaceous Africa.
‘For such large animals, they would have weighed very little. Their wingspans were around 10 to 13 feet, with their bones almost paper-thin and full of air, very similar to birds.
‘This allowed these awesome creatures to reach incredible sizes and still be able to take off and soar the skies.’
The discovery has helped uncover the poorly known evolutionary history of Africa when dinosaurs roamed the continent.
African pterosaurs were found to be similar to those found on other continents.
Their world included crocodile-like hunters and carnivorous dinosaurs, with very few herbivores.
Many predators, including toothed pterosaurs, preyed on an abundance of fish and they would have been able to forage for hundreds of miles
Fossil evidence shows they flew between South America and Africa – similar to birds today such as condors and albatrosses.
The pterosaur specimens will be part of an acquisition in a museum in Morocco.
Professor David Martill from the Uiversity of Portsmouth added: ‘We are in a golden age for discovering pterodactyles. This year alone we have discovered three new species and we are only into March.’
The study was published in the journal Cretaceous Research.
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