A fossil of one of the world’s largest ever flying animals has been discovered embedded in cliffs on the Isle of Wight.
The giant pterosaur, which lived about 125 million years ago, may have weighed up to 650 lbs (295 kg), and had a wingspan of at least 20 feet (6 metres).
Known as Hatzegopteryx, it hunted dinosaurs, and had enormous elongated jaws to catch and kill its prey, according to the Sunday Times .
The pterosaur remains were discovered by professional fossil hunter Robert Coram as he explored rockfalls on the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight.
“We think this is one of the first super-pterosaurs,” Coram told the newspaper. “It might have been the largest flying creature that had ever lived up to that time.”
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Together with David Martill, professor of palaeobiology at Portsmouth University, Coram calculated that the fossil dates from the Barremian era 125-129m years ago.
This would make it close in age to similar fossils found in China, suggesting that the creatures dominated skies worldwide.
“The presence of a large Barremian pterosaur in the Wessex rock strata of the United Kingdom and in the Barremian of China shows that very large pterosaurs were already widespread in the very early Cretaceous,” they wrote in a research paper .
Pterosaurs – not to be confused with dinosaurs – were flying reptiles, and the first backboned animals to evolve to fly.
They emerged about 228m years ago and dominated the skies for over 160 million years.
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During that time they evolved into a huge range of species, from tiny sparrow-like creatures to giant beasts like Hatzegopteryx and Quetzalcoatlus, which had a wingspan of up to 30 feet.
Earlier this month, a new species of pterosaur was identified by scientists from Queen Mary University of London.
Palaeontologists had previously assumed that the remains of a pterosaur discovered 30 years ago in Alberta, Canada, was a Quetzalcoatlus.
However, the analysis revealed that it was actually a new species, now known as Cryodrakon boreas, from the Azhdarchid group of pterosaurs.
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It is thought that Cryodrakon boreas was comparable in size to the Quetzalcoatlus, which could reach 10.5 metres in wingspan and weighed around 250 kg.
The sheer size of some pterosaurs has long baffled scientists because they seem too heavy to take off.
However, new research with a computerised 3D model suggests they used their massive leg and wing muscles to catapult themselves into the air.
It is also though that they had membranes – like bats’ wings – which are more efficient at generating lift than feathers.