Paleontologists from England, Germany and Mexico have discovered an extraordinary new species of pterosaur, characterized by 400 astonishing teeth resembling the teeth of a beaver’s comb. A remarkable fossil was found in a quarry in Germany. Professor David Martill, lead author of the study, from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Environment, Geography and Geosciences, said: “The nearly complete skeleton was found in a very thinly bedded limestone that preserved the fossils beautifully.

“The jaws of this pterosaur are really long and covered with small, slender, hooked teeth with small gaps between them like a lice comb. The long jaw is curved upwards like teeth and eventually expands like a spoon. It has no teeth at the end of its mouth, but teeth on both jaws all the way to the back of its smile.” there is.

“And what’s even more remarkable is that some of the teeth have hooks on the tips that we’ve never seen before in a pterosaur. These little hooks were used to catch small shrimp that the pterosaur probably fed on, so they would go down its throat and not get caught between its teeth.” The discovery was made by chance when scientists uncovered a large block of limestone with crocodile bones.

Professor Martil said: “This was a rather remarkable finding of a well-preserved skeleton with almost perfect articulation; it was apparently buried in sediment soon after death.

Pterosaurs belong to the family of pterosaurs, Ctenochasmatidae, known from the limestone of Bavaria, Germany, where this one is also found. Since the first pterosaur was described here in the 18th century, hundreds of remains of these flying reptiles have been discovered, making the Franken Jurassic quarries in Bavaria one of the richest pterosaur habitats in the world.

“This pterosaur had teeth in its upper and lower jaws that were mirror images of each other. There’s another pterosaur with more teeth — pterodaustro It’s from Argentina – but it has short teeth in the upper jaw and even longer teeth in the lower jaw, so this new specimen is very different from other ctenochasmatids,” added Professor Martil.

The teeth of the new pterosaur indicate an extraordinary feeding mechanism as it navigated through the water. It traps prey in its mouth, using its spoon-shaped beak to channel water and then its teeth to squeeze out excess fluid. The animal likely indulged by wading through shallow lagoons, sucking on small aquatic shrimps and copepods, and then filtering with their teeth, such as ducks and flamingos.

he was chosen Balaenognathus maeuseri. The common name roughly means “whale mouth” because of its filtering method. The proper name is given in honor of one of the co-authors, Matthias Meuser, who unfortunately died while writing the article. Professor Martil said: “Matthias was a kind and warm-hearted colleague of a rare kind. We named the pterosaur after him to preserve his memory.”