The pelvis bone, discovered by a group of University of Alberta researchers in a sandstone bone bed near Steveville in Dinosaur Provincial Park, turned out to belong to a pterosaur, an order of reptiles best known for the ability to fly. "It confused us for a long time, because it's such an unusual bone," said Greg Funston, a University of Alberta PhD student in paleontology. Azhdarchids included some of the largest known flying animals of all time. (Yale University)'The smoking gun was the hind limb'However the features of the pelvic bone Funston identified, such as muscle scarring, suggests his giant reptile actually spent more time walking. "The first pterosaur pelvic material from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian) and implications for azhdarchid locomotion" appears in Facets, a new open-access journal from Canadian Science Publishing.

Source: CBC News July 12, 2017 20:15 UTC