Dino card No. 1775 of 2,027

Tethydraco

Say it: TETH-ee-DRAY-ko

Name means: “Tethys dragon”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Tethydraco was a flying reptile that soared over the ancient Tethys Sea, where Africa is today. It had a wingspan of about 5 metres, as wide as a small car, and hunted fish from the air.2

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

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco2

Food

Fish3

Wingspan

5 m2

estimated from humerus length

Weight

15 kg1

body mass

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 4 house cats

wings as wide as 3 bicycles in a rowas heavy as 120 bananas

How big was Tethydraco compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Tethydraco lived about 66 million years ago, just before the dinosaurs went extinct.1

Its name means 'Tethys dragon', after the ancient Tethys Sea that once covered part of Africa.1

The only known fossil of Tethydraco is a left upper arm bone, called a humerus.2

Scientists think Tethydraco was a pteranodontid, a group of pterosaurs that glided over oceans like modern seabirds.2

Tethydraco was about the size of other pteranodontids, with a wingspan around 5 metres.2

Its fossils were found in phosphate mines in Morocco, alongside many other marine animals like sharks and mosasaurs.2

AI-made picture of Tethydraco — An AI-made picture of how Tethydraco 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 Tethydraco

?Was Tethydraco a dinosaur?

No, Tethydraco was a pterosaur, a flying reptile, not a dinosaur.1

?How big was Tethydraco?

Tethydraco had a wingspan of about 5 metres (16 feet) and weighed around 15 kilograms (33 pounds).1

?What did Tethydraco eat?

Tethydraco was a piscivore, meaning it ate fish, which it hunted from the air over the sea.3

?When did Tethydraco live?

Tethydraco lived about 66 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period, just before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Tethydraco
Named by: Longrich et al. 20183
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Pteranodontidae3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea > Pteranodontidae3
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Couche III3
Countries: Morocco3
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Tethydraco was named in 2018 by Nicholas Longrich, David Martill and Brian Andres. The fossils were found in phosphate mines in Morocco.1
Still debated: Some scientists think Tethydraco might actually be an azhdarchid pterosaur, not a pteranodontid, but others disagree.1

Where the facts come from

Tethydraco (en.wikipedia.org)
Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary | PLOS Biology (journals.plos.org)
Tethydraco 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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