{"id":12097,"date":"2024-06-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=12097"},"modified":"2024-06-14T04:44:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T04:44:01","slug":"100-million-year-old-fossil-find-reveals-huge-flying-reptile-that-patrolled-australias-inland-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/100-million-year-old-fossil-find-reveals-huge-flying-reptile-that-patrolled-australias-inland-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"100-million-year-old fossil find reveals huge flying reptile that patrolled Australia\u2019s inland sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n \n Gabriel Ugueto<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n Adele Pentland<\/a>, Curtin University<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

One hundred million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, much of northeastern Australia was underwater. The inland Eromanga Sea was home to a myriad of marine creatures, from turtles and dolphin-like ichthyosaurs to the bus-sized predator Kronosaurus queenslandicus<\/em> and other plesiosaurs.<\/p>\n\n

The forested outskirts of the sea were home to dinosaurs and the skies above were filled with birds. But all of them would have been shaded by the largest flying creatures of the age \u2013 the pterosaurs.<\/p>\n\n

In November 2021, an avocado farmer turned museum curator<\/a> named Kevin Petersen discovered a fossilised skeleton near Richmond in Queensland. The previously unknown species turned out to be the most complete pterosaur fossil found in Australia. It comprises around 22% of the skeleton of an animal with a wingspan of some 4.6 metres.<\/p>\n\n