The Brazilian police uncovered a treasure trove of fossils in 2013 when they seized thousands of limestone slabs that smugglers were trying to smuggle from the country.
The rocks were covered with traces of extinct creatures that lived millions of years ago, but one in particular caught the attention of scientists: a striking winged reptile with a bird-like beak and a protrusion at its head.
Fabiana Rodrigues Costa, a paleontologist at the Federal ABC University of Sao Paulo, who states that this was the first found complete skeleton of a Tupandactylus navigans, a type of “Pterosaur” from 110 million years ago.” She said, “Finding such a valuable fossil inside a limestone slab is like winning the jack pot in lottery. The value of this 110 million-year-old fossil is priceless in the name of science.”
