Those guys who like to do their digging with a paintbrush, called “archaeologists,” found something new from 86 million years ago. They like to call it Thanatosdrakon amaru, which translates to “The Dragon of Death.”
Dragon discovered in Argentina
Scientists on an archaeological dig in Argentina discovered what they are convinced is a “new species” of a previously known flying reptile called Dragon of Death.
It ruled the skies 86 million years ago, flying circles around Tyrannosaurus Rex with a body the size of a school bus. It might even have been yellow.
One thing they know about the dragon is that it was a predator. This particular new species measures in at 30 feet long.
Biologists note that creatures like this were replaced by their feathered cousins we know today as birds. You definitely wouldn’t want one of these crapping on your windshield.
The group of dedicated paleontologists had to climb the Andes mountains from Argentina’s western Mendoza province.
The effort was rewarded by discovery of fossils from a separate species “amaru” of the Thanatosdrakon “death dragon” genus. This particular one was found embedded in rocks “dated back 86 million years to the Cretaceous period.”
Long before the asteroid
Well established geological evidence confirms that an asteroid hit near Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, which “wiped out about three-quarters of life on the planet.”
That happened around 66 millions years ago. What it means is that the newly discovered death dragon was dead for 20 million years before the asteroid came along.
Project leader Leonardo Ortiz found totally unique characteristics about this skeleton which “required a new genus and species name.”
He got to pick the whole thing by himself. “It seemed appropriate to name it that way,” Ortiz explains. “It’s the dragon of death.”
They know for sure a death dragon would be intimidating to run across. It’s the “largest pterosaur yet discovered in South America and one of the largest found anywhere.”
The experts admit that they “don’t have a current record of any close relative that even has a body modification similar to these beasts.“