There’s a new pterosaur in town. A museum curator happened upon a winged carnivorous reptile fossil while checking on another specimen in an area available to amateur fossil hunters. Researchers characterize it as a unique species in Scientific Reports.
Finding the New Pterosaur Fossils
Kronosaurus Korner museum curator Kevin Petersen was visiting a western Queensland, Australia site available to the public with a permit from the Richmond, Australia marine fossil museum. He was checking on a fossil he had been readying for removal when he noticed a bone protruding from the top shale layer.
“I immediately identified it as a pterosaur, as the bone resembled a fractured hard-boiled egg, characteristic of flattened pterosaur bone,” Petersen says.
