An ancient ‘death dragon’ reptile, as long as a BUS, discovered in Argentina

ANCIENT fossilized remains of a terrifying flying dinosaur have been found in central Argentina.

The beast had a wingspan of over 30 feet – about the size of a school bus.

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Researchers have recovered about 40 bones and body fragments from the giant winged dinosaur.

Leonardo Ortiz, the study’s leader, gave the creature an aptly foreboding name — “It’s the Dragon of Death,” Ortiz said.

Like modern birds, the death dragon had hollow bones – but the beast more closely resembled a reptile, being cold-blooded.

Daily Mail quoted Ortiz as saying, “We have no current record of a close relative sporting even a body modification resembling these beasts.”

Pterosaurs, dinosaurs in the same family as the death dragon, were among the first creatures to develop powered flight after insects.

Significantly, the sediments in which the newly discovered bones were deposited were about 86 million years old.

The dinosaurs became extinct 66 million years ago when a 7.5-mile-wide meteor collided with Earth near the Yucatan Peninsula.

That means the death dragon was patrolling the sky 20 million years before the mass extinction of dinosaurs.

The properties of the Dragon of Death are so unique that Ortiz and his team had to give the beast a new scientific name.

“Basically, these features are found in the vertebrae and limbs. This allowed us to establish a new species of pterosaurs,” Ortiz told USA Today.

They agreed Thanatosdrakon amaruwhich combines the Greek words for “death” and “dragon”.

The first dinosaur fossils were discovered and recognized as prehistoric beasts 200 years ago in Sussex, UK.

Centuries earlier, an English chemistry professor found a dinosaur thigh bone—he Thought it belonged to a giant human.