— Earthquakes: Water as a lubricant — Geophysicists from Potsdam have established a mode of action that can explain the irregular distribution of strong earthquakes at the San Andreas Fault in California. As the science…
— Ancient environment found to drive marine biodiversity — Much of our knowledge about past life has come from the fossil record - but how accurately does that reflect the true history and drivers of biodiversity on Earth?…
— Earth's core deprived of oxygen — The composition of the Earth's core remains a mystery. Scientists know that the liquid outer core consists mainly of iron, but it is believed that small amounts of some other elements…
— Human, artificial intelligence join forces to pinpoint fossil locations — In 1991, a team led by Washington University in St. Louis palaeoanthropologist Glenn Conroy, PhD, discovered the fossils of the first - and still the only - known pre-human ape ever…
— Palaeontologist describes large nest of juvenile dinosaurs, first of their genus ever found — A nest containing the fossilised remains of 15 juvenile Protoceratops andrewsi dinosaurs from Mongolia has been described by a University of Rhode Island palaeontologist, revealing…
— Researchers pinpoint date and rate of Earth's most extreme extinction — It's well known that Earth's most severe mass extinction occurred about 250 million years ago. What's not well known is the specific time when the extinctions occurred. A team of researchers…
— Archeologists investigate Ice Age hominins' adaptability to climate change — Computational modelling that examines evidence of how hominin groups evolved culturally and biologically in response to climate change during the last Ice Age also bears new insights…
— Research suggests strong Indian crust thrust beneath the Tibetan Plateau — For many years, most scientists studying Tibet have thought that a very hot and very weak lower and middle crust underlies its plateau, flowing like a fluid. Now, a team of researchers…
— Did dinosaurs have lice? Researchers say it's possible — A new study louses up a popular theory of animal evolution and opens up the possibility that dinosaurs were early - perhaps even the first - animal hosts of lice…
New giant toothless pterosaur discovered
A researcher at the University of Portsmouth has identified a new species of pterosaur, the largest of its kind to ever be found. It represents an entirely new genus of these flying reptiles that ruled the skies 115 million years ago. The finding is significant because it originated in Brazil and is the only example of the Chaoyangopteridae, a group of toothless pterosaurs, to be found outside China and is the largest one ever discovered.
Mark Witton identified the creature from a partial skull fossil from which he was able to estimate that it would have had a five-metre wingspan - bigger than a family car - and would stand over one metre tall at the shoulder.
He said: 'Some of the previous examples we have from this family in China are just 60 centimetres long - as big as the skull of the new species. Put simply, it dwarfs any chaoyangopterid we've seen before by miles.'
Witton has christened the new species Lacusovagus, meaning 'lake wanderer,' after the large body of water in which the remains were buried. The findings were published in the journal Palaeontology in November.
He was asked to examine the specimen which had lain in a German museum for several years after its discovery in the Crato Formation of the Araripe Basin in North East Brazil, an area well known for the its fossils and their excellent state of preservation. However, he said that this fossil was preserved in an unusual way, making its interpretation difficult.
'Usually fossils like this are found lying on their sides but this one was lying on the roof of its mouth and had been rather squashed which made even figuring out whether it had teeth difficult. Still, it's clear to see that Lacusovagus had an unusually wide skull which has implications for its feeding habits - maybe it liked particularly large prey. The remains are very fragmentary, however, so we need more specimens before we can draw any conclusions.'
Witton said: 'The discovery of something like this in Brazil - so far away from its closest relatives in China - demonstrates how little we actually know about the distribution and evolutionary history of this fascinating group of creatures.'
Or subscribe for our Newsletter, a free e-mail publication. It is published practically every day.
Mysterious joint structure in the hand bones of ancient lemur
Giant fossil bats out of Africa
Remains of giant frog discovered in Madagascar
Mobile Neanderthals