Fossilized bones discovered in Australia identified as new species of flying dinosaur

Fossilized bones found in Australia have been identified as a new species of flying dinosaur, a “fearsome” predator that lived about 100 million years ago and had a wingspan of 15 feet.

The bones, discovered in western Queensland by museum creator Kevin Petersen in 2021, were found to belong to a newly identified species of pterosaur, dubbed Haliskia peterseni, or “Peterson’s Ghost of the Sea.”

A research team led by Ph.D. student Adele Pentland, from Curtin University, Australia, identified the specimen as a member of the group Ornithocheiromorphabased on the shape of its skull, the arrangement of the teeth and the shape of the shoulder bone.

Ornithocheiromorpha was a group of pterosaurs known to have lived all over the world, including what is now England, Brazil, Morocco, China, Spain, and the United States.

“Careful preparation by Mr. Petersen has furnished the remains of the most complete specimen of a (Ornithocheiromorph)and of any pterosaur discovered in Australia to date,” Pentland said.

“With a wingspan of approximately 4.6 meters, Haliskia would have been a formidable predator around 100 million years ago, when much of central-west Queensland was underwater,” she added, calling the pterosaur family a group of “ demonic pelicans,” due to their large, bucket-shaped mouths for scooping up fish.

Haliskia peterseni joins several marine fossil specimens on display at the Kronosaurus Korner Museum in Queensland, where Petersen is curator. Working at a public dig site near the town of Richmond, Peterson saw the bones and knew it was a pterosaur, ABC News AU reports.

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“The specimen includes complete lower jaws, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, bones of both wings and part of a leg,” Pentland said. “Very thin and delicate throat bones are also present, indicating a muscular tongue, which helped feed on fish and cephalopods.”

Queensland was part of the shallow sea mentioned earlier, and Pentland said the area where the pterosaur was discovered is renowned for its fossil beds.

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“I’ve never seen anything like this in Australia. In Richmond, it’s actually low effort and high reward,” Pentland said.

“I wouldn't be surprised if someone digging in these public graves outside of Richmond found something even more complete. I think it's just a matter of time.

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