Flying Transylvanian dinosaur unearthed

Posted on Thursday, 7 February, 2013 | Comment icon

9 comments | News tip by: Still Waters

Image credit: Mark Witton, Darren Naish

The 68 million-year-old remains of a previously unknown species of pterosaur have been discovered.

Unearthed in Romania's Transylvanian Basin, the large winged reptile known as Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis was capable of folding up its wings and walking around on all fours. The lifestyle and behavior of this particular group of dinosaurs has long been debated and it is hoped that this new find will help shed some light on the mystery.

"It has been suggested that they grabbed prey from the water while in flight, that they patrolled wetlands and hunted in a heron or stork-like fashion, or that they were like gigantic sandpipers, hunting by pushing their long bills into mud," said Dr Gareth Dyke. "One of the newest ideas is that azhdarchids walked through forests, plains and other places in search of small animal prey."

The discovery is the most complete example of an azhdarchid found in Europe so far and its discovery supports a long-argued theory about the behaviour of these types of creatures.

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Source: Telegraph

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Recent comments on this story

#1 Posted by Lord Vetinari on 6 February, 2013, 17:29

Oh, that's disappointing. I thought it meant they'd found one alive now, somewhere in the Carpathians. How do they know it was named named Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis? Did it have a name tag on its collar?

#2 Posted by Hasina on 7 February, 2013, 12:07

:| Pterorsaur's aren't dinosaurs.

#3 Posted by wolfknight on 7 February, 2013, 13:02

Ok they were big sandpipper. I thought they were lizards not birds.

#4 Posted by Frank Merton on 7 February, 2013, 13:31

I've wondered about this. There were the dinosaurs, the plesiosaurs, the pterosaurs, the turtles, the things that later became snakes and lizards, the things that later became birds, the crocidilians and another bunch called the "mammal-like reptiles". We call all of them reptiles, but they are as different from one another as from mammals. Do we just lump them all together because they were contemporaneous and it's a habit?

#5 Posted by theSOURCE on 7 February, 2013, 14:45

It wouldn't, perchance, have had a taste for blood or predilection for impaling it's prey with it's beak, would it? A Vladodon perhaps?

#6 Posted by CRIPTIC CHAMELEON on 7 February, 2013, 21:33

Count Eurazhdarco.

#7 Posted by King Cobra 1408 on 8 February, 2013, 3:01

either way i hope they find information and solve their questions and find the answers they seek to them.i always liked dinosaurs.my favorite one is the raptor because they fast,smart and agile but still strong.but i wish i could add more useful information to this but dinasaurs i need to catch up on my dinosaur history lol

#8 Posted by H132 on 8 February, 2013, 21:19

Okay... now I think their just resorting to making things up because they got bored.

#9 Posted by SameerPrehistorica on 9 February, 2013, 2:50

The title needs to be changed as -- 'Flying Transylvanian Pterosaur Unearthed'. It's funny, in that site telegraph.co.uk, they mentioned it as Dinosaur in the title and pterorsaur in the deion.

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