Brazil's Biggest Ever Flying Dinosaur Fossil

The biggest flying reptile fossil ever found in Brazil -- 8.2 metres from wingtip to wingtip -- is presented to the public in Rio's National Museum.

Published

about 1 month ago

Categories

Science, Arts & Society

Topics

Science, History

People

Alexander Kellner

Places

Brazil, Rio De Janeiro

Transcript

SHOTLIST : RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, 20 MARCH 2013 SOURCE: AFPTV -VAR of Alexander Kellner speaking in front of the reconstructed skeleton SOUNDBITE 1, Alexander Kellner, Paleontologist, Rio de Janeiro Federal University (Portuguese, 28 sec) "Behind me, you can see the most complete giant specimen of this animal ever found. It's a "Tropeognathus mesembrinus" which has a wingspen of more than 8 metres. It's the most complete specimen because it has a skull, a jawbone, part of the wings, a almost complete spinal column, feet... So, we have a good idea of what this giant animal looked like" -VAR of the reconstructed skeleton made from polyester resin SOUNDBITE 2, Alamo Saraiva, Paleontologist, Cariri Regional University (north-east of Brazil) (Portuguese, 30 sec) "This flying reptile ate from lakes, it was a fisherman. But it had a weakness, because its bones were quite hollow, and sometimes when its wings hit the water they broke and it fell. That's why we find a lot of fossils at the bottom of these ancient Cretaceous lakes" (for info the Cretaceous was between 145 and 65 million years ago) -VAR of a pterosaurus head and teeth