By: Selena Lin

In 2021, museum curator Kevin Peterson discovered a new species of the flying dinosaur pterosaur in Queensland, Australia. The newly found species was given the scientific name Haliskia Peterseni after its founder. The Haliskia Peterseni bones were around 100 million years old. The dinosaur was believed to have a huge wingspan of approximately 4.6 meters and a muscular tongue handy for swallowing prey.

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that lived around 225 to 65 million years ago. They had wings and bird-like beaks. The Haliskia Peterseni was identified as an anhanguerian pterosaur, a group of pterosaurs that have lived in many places around the world. 100 million years ago, Queensland was mostly underwater, so the Haliskia Petersenis would usually hunt fish or cephalopods. “With a wingspan of approximately 4.6 meters, Haliskia would have been a fearsome predator around 100 million years ago when much of central western Queensland was underwater, covered by a vast inland sea and globally positioned about where Victoria’s southern coastline is today,” PhD student and lead researcher Adele Pentland said.

Mr Peterson’s finding in Queensland comprised 22% of the pterosaur’s overall frame. According to Adele Pentland, “The specimen includes complete lower jaws, the tip of the upper jaw, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, bones from both wings and part of a leg,” Also present are fragile and delicate throat bones, indicating a muscular tongue, which helped during feeding on fish and cephalopods.” From the fossils of the haliskia, you can tell how well-adapted it was to be a predator in its environment.