Dino card No. 0228 of 2,027

Bakonydraco

Say it: ba-KON-ee-DRAY-ko

Name means: “dragon of the Bakony Mountains”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Bakonydraco was a flying reptile that lived in what is now Hungary. It had a long, toothless beak like a pair of tweezers for grabbing fish. With a wingspan as wide as a small car, it soared over rivers and lakes.1

Fun fact: pterosaurs flew over the dinosaurs, but they were their cousins, not dinosaurs themselves.

Lived

86 to 84 million years ago5

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Bakony Mountains, Iharkút, Veszprém, western Hungary3 1

Food

Fish1 2

Wingspan

3 to 4 m1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

wings as wide as 2 bicycles in a row

How big was Bakonydraco compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Bakonydraco is known from a nearly complete lower jaw, which is one of the best preserved jaws of any azhdarchid pterosaur.1

Its neck was long and stiff, so it could not bend its head down easily. This may have helped it catch fish without slowing down.1

Bakonydraco lived alongside dinosaurs like theropods, ornithopods, and nodosaurids, as well as turtles, crocodilians, and birds.1

The name Bakonydraco means 'dragon of the Bakony Mountains', where its fossils were found in a bauxite mine.1

Scientists think Bakonydraco may have eaten fruits as well as fish, because its beak looks similar to that of the fruit-eating pterosaur Tapejara.1

Bakonydraco lived about 85 to 83 million years ago, during the Santonian stage of the Late Cretaceous.2

AI-made picture of Bakonydraco — An AI-made picture of how Bakonydraco might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bakonydraco

?Was Bakonydraco a dinosaur?

No, Bakonydraco was a pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs but was not a dinosaur itself.3 4

?How big was Bakonydraco?

Its wingspan was about 3.5 to 4 metres (11 to 13 feet), which is about as wide as a small car.3 1

?What did Bakonydraco eat?

It likely ate fish, grabbing them with its long, toothless beak. It may also have eaten fruits, because its beak looks similar to that of the fruit-eating pterosaur Tapejara.3 1

?When did Bakonydraco live?

It lived about 85 to 83 million years ago, during the Santonian stage of the Late Cretaceous period.3 5

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Bakonydraco
Named by: Osi et al. 20055
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Azhdarchidae5
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea > Azhdarchidae5
Age of the rocks: 86 to 84 million years (Santonian)5
Rock formations: Csehbánya5
Countries: Hungary5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: Bakonydraco was named in 2005 by Attila Ősi, David Weishampel, and Jianu Coralia. The fossils were found in an open-pit bauxite mine near Iharkút, Hungary.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Bakonydraco mainly ate fish or also ate fruits. Its beak suggests both were possible.1

Where the facts come from

First evidence of azhdarchid pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary (app.pan.pl)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Bakonydraco (en.wikipedia.org)
Bakonydraco galaczi – Magyar Dinoszaurusz-kutató Expedíció (magyardinoszaurusz.hu)
Bakonydraco in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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