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‘Dragon Of Death’ Found In Argentina

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Kay Smythe News and Commentary Writer
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Researchers in Argentina have discovered the largest flying reptiles uncovered on the continent so far, and dubbed the monster the “Dragon of Death.”

Two of the monsters were found in the Plottier Formation, an outcrop located in the Mendoza province of Argentina, Live Science reported. The wingspans of the Thanatosdrakon amaru are between 23 feet and 30 feet wide, making it the largest pterosaur discovered from the Creaceous period (146 million to 66 million years ago), the outlet described. (RELATED: Enormous Sinkhole Discovered With Shocking Interior)

“Azhdarchids were known for their very large skulls — sometimes larger than their bodies — as well as their hyper-elongated necks and short, robust bodies,” Leonardo D. Ortiz David, the lead author of a new study into the massive flying beasts told Live Science.

The two pterosaurs died at the same time, and it appears that one was not fully grown into adulthood at the time of their deaths, Live Science continued. The researchers have yet to determine if they were part of the same family group, as “there is no indication in the fossil remains of a degree of parental relationship,” Ortiz David continued.

“However, it can be confirmed that both specimens are of different sizes, and that the smaller one is a juvenile-subadult, and that they were together when they died more than 86 million years ago,” he continued, suggesting that the creatures lived 20 million years prior to the asteroid strike that wiped out the age of dinosaurs, Reuters noted.

Much of the fossils were in different states of preservation, Live Science noted. The humeri (arm bones), syncarpals (foot bones), and dorsal vertebrae were complete, and found alongside fragments of toes, forearms, femurs, and pelvis bones, the outlet reported.