Ancient cemetery of “flying reptiles” discovered in the Atacama desert in Chile

A team of scientists unearthed a graveyard with multiple preserved bones of pterosaurs that roamed the Atacama Desert, in Chile more than 100 million years ago.

The remains belong to ancient flying reptiles with large wingspans that fed by filtering water through long, slender flamingo-like teeth, Reuters reported.

The group of experts, led by Jonathan Alarcon A researcher from the paleontology network of the University of Chile, he has been searching for pterosaurs for several years, but this finding totally exceeded his expectations.

“It is of worldwide relevance since this type of find is relatively scarce,” Alarcón said. “Nearly everywhere in the world, pterosaur remains are mostly found in isolation.”

The discovery of this rare necropolis will allow specialists to study the habits of the pterosaur not just his anatomy.

“We could, for example, determine how the groups of these animals were made up, whether they raised their children or not, among other questions,” added the researcher.

Another unexpected puzzle was how well preserved the bones discovered by scientists were.

“Most of the remains of these animals in the world are crushed,” he said. David Rubilar head of paleontology at the National History Museum of Chile. “In this case no, they are preserved in three dimensions.”

The find was made 65 kilometers from a place where other pterosaur remains were discovered. This novelty supports the hypothesis of the experts that they were once very widespread in the north of the southern country..

Source-larepublica.pe