Caiuajara dobruskii, a new variety of pterosaur, or flying dinosaur, has been discovered in a mass grave in Brazil.
More than 47 individuals make up the fossils found in the boneyard, discovered in Cruzeiro do Oeste, in the state of Parana. Hundreds of artifacts were found in a location just over 200 square feet in area. Living in close quarters like this suggests the pterosaurs may have been highly social animals, hunting and roaming in packs.
The flying dinosaurs thrived during the Upper Cretaceous, roughly 80 million years in the past. Their heads featured a pair of large crests that gave the body part the appearance of a butterfly.
Caiuajara dobruskii is the first pterosaur ever discovered in southern Brazil, despite the fact several species have been found in the northeastern regions of the nation.
Although only 47 individuals have been positively identified, researchers believe that hundreds of animals may be preserved in the location. Wingspans of the recovered animals ranged from between two and seven feet, or more. The animals were all different ages when they passed away, giving paleontologists an opportunity to investigate the entire life cycle of the species. Investigation of the fossils revealed the species likely learned how to fly early in life, due to the nearly-developed wings of young specimens.
"Most pterosaurs are known from ancient coastal or shallow marine deposits and the number of species that lived deep inside the continents is limited, particularly from desert environments," researchers wrote in an article announcing their findings.
The mass bone yard was an oasis for the animals. The creatures likely died there slowly over the course of a long period of time. Another theory holds that the animals may have been migratory hunters, caught in dramatic weather events.
Alexander Kellner, a paleontologist at the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, believes this find provides the best evidence yet that flying dinosaurs were highly-social animals, living in packs.
The fossil bed was first discovered in the 1970's by a farmer named Dobruski, but the finding was largely ignored by paleontologists until 2012, when remains were first carefully examined by scientists. The species name was derived from the name of the location, as well as the farmer who first discovered the fossil bed.
"The causes of death remain unknown, although similarities with dinosaur drought-related mortality are striking. However, it is also possible that desert storms could have been responsible for the occasional demise of these pterosaurs," researchers concluded.
Discovery of C. dobruskii in the mass grave was detailed in the online journal Plos One.
