(Photo : Maurilio Oliveira / Museu Nacional - UFRJ) A new species of flying reptile from the Cretaceous Era, Caiuajara dobruskiii, has been unearthed in Southern Brazil


Ancient reptile fossils recently unearthed in Southern Brazil belonged to a flying reptile with a "butterfly-like head."



"Caiuajara dobruskii," the name of this brand-new species of reptile, was said to have lived about 80 million years ago in an ancient desert oasis. Their heads were shaped like a butterfly's wings, and the reptile had a wingspan that allowed them to take flight from an early age.



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The presence of hundreds of fossils in a single bone bed is significant, meaning the flying reptiles were social in nature, said Alexander Kellner, a paleontologist at the Museu Nacional / Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.



Kellner said that the bone bed, with its hundreds of individual fossils in well-dated geological layers, is some of the strongest evidence yet the fruit-eating animals were social.



This may, in turn, strengthen evidence that other pterosaur species may have been social, as well.



The bone bed was originally found in a geologic formation called the Caiuá Group. This is the first time that significant findings were brought to light in the southern half of the country. On the other hand, it's common to find pterosaur fossils in Northern Brazil.



In the 1970s, a farmer discovered a massive Cretaceous Period bone bed in Southern Brazil. The region was not known for any fossils, and the discovery was forgotten and only recently rediscovered.



Hundreds of bone fragments from the new pterodactyl species were found in an area 20 square meters large. Adult and juvenile fossils were found, with the young having wingspans reaching 0.65 meters and the adult wingspans reaching 2.35 meters in length.



Since there was no glaring difference between the skeletal sizes of the adults and the younger ones (apart from the head), researchers hypothesized that Caiuajara dobruskii could fly at a young age.



Researchers inferred the possibility that ancient colonies may have lived around the lakes for water supplies and died during periods of drought and storms. Their remains would have been pushed into the lake where the water preserved their fossils indefinitely.




TagsButterfly head, Fossils