Ancient Flying Reptile Ate Like a Toothy Pelican

120-million-year-old fossils of the pterosaur, an ancient flying reptile with pelican-like features and 40 pairs of teeth, have been discovered in northern China.

Dubbed Ikrandraco avatar, the pterosaur sported an unusual crest under its chin, which may have supported a pouch. As reported in the science journal Scientific Reports on Thursday, the species name comes from a fictional flying creature called an Ikran, portrayed with a similar chin crest in the 2009 movie Avatar.
"Many pterosaurs bear crests on their skull, some quite large and bizarre," says study senior author Alexander Kellner of Brazil's Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. However, this is the first reported finding of a pterosaur with a crest on the lower jaw and none on the skull.

Overall, Ikrandraco was about 30 inches long (75 centimeters) and armed with a toothed skull about 11 inches (28 centimeters) long.

The pterosaur had at least 40 pairs of small teeth, each a bit under half an inch (one centimeter) long. The lower jaw bore a crest about 5 inches (13 centimeters) long, larger than that of any other flying reptile, Kellner says. The fossils of two nearly complete pterosaurs were found in bone beds more than 12 miles (20 kilometers) apart in northern China.