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They would not have dared to imagine such a find.
- For years, Jhonatan Alcarcon and his research team have been searching for remains of the pterosaur in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
They have now found a veritable mass grave with fossils of the pterosaur.
Jhonatan Alcarcon, Researcher University of Chile
“Almost everywhere in the world remains of pterosaurs are sporadic, there are few cases where aggregates of bones from these animals can be found.
This Chilean site is important because it could give us a lot of information about the animals' way of life.
For example, we could determine, among other things, how the groups of these animals were composed, whether they reared their young or not.”
The flying reptiles are not directly dinosaurs, but they are closely related to this group.
With a wingspan of up to 2.5 meters, pterosaurs are among the largest flying creatures that have ever lived on earth.
A 3D model shows what the reptiles might have looked like.
What is special is not only the amount of bones that were found, but also how well they are preserved.
This gives researchers insightful details about the anatomy of the animals that inhabited our planet for over 160 million years during the Cretaceous Period.
Jhonatan Alcarcon, University of Chile researcher
“These bones allowed us to determine that they were pterosaurs of the Ctenochasmatidae family, which fed by filtering water - similar to today's flamingo.
They had long snouts with thin teeth that enabled them to feed in this way."
Since more fossils were discovered about 65 kilometers from the site, it can be assumed that the kite was once widespread in northern Chile.
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