. Dating to more than 150 million years ago, the pterosaur holds pride of place as the largest flying reptile yet discovered in Australia.
It didn’t hurt its public profile that, in announcing the find, the University of Queensland team who analyzed the fossil was unabashed in describing their discovery in the fieriest, most dragon-like way. “It’s the closest thing we have to a real dragon,” gushed one member of the team in a news release. “This thing would have been quite savage.”announcing the find is pleased to call it a savage thing, you know it’s impressive. The paleontology team eventually settled on the official name ofspear mouth
, while the species name acknowledges one Len Shaw, a local fossil hunter who initially discovered the unidentified specimen in 2011. The Aussie dragon is currently on display in a Queensland