160 million years ago, the earth was home to dinosaurs. In those days, this reptile was the most powerful creature in the world, on land, at sea, in the air. On land, Tyrannosaurus rex, Spinosaurus and other beast dinosaurs dominate, pterosaurs dominate one side, and in the ocean, there is a more ** Canglong (note: Canglong, Pterodactyl do not belong to dinosaurs), they are all overlords on land.
In 2006, paleontologist Hideki Matsui of the Kitakyushu National Museum of Natural History in Japan discovered a fossil paleontology in the Arita River area of Wakayama. Excitingly, the fossil is so well preserved that it is the best of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, which doubles its value. It took paleontologists five years to excavate the skeleton in its entirety.
This is the fossil of a cangosaurus. Cangsaurus, that is an ancient creature, lived in the age of dinosaurs, and has a certain kinship with dinosaurs. According to the latest research, the largest cantosaurus can reach a length of 17 meters, surpassing the largest Tyrannosaurus rex. At that time, it ate everything from shellfish to turtles, to sharks, to plesiosaurs, to other species, and for more than 20 million years, it has been the overlord of this sea.
However, this fossil of Canglong is not so large, about six meters long, about the size of a truck. As soon as it was excavated, Japanese paleontologists jokingly called it Wakayama"Blue Dragon"This monster is known as the "Blue Dragon" in local folklore. It was only recently that paleontologists gave it a name.
In this fossil, we can see a slightly raised protrusion on its spine, which looks like a dolphin and a finless porpoise. Dolphins are known to have dorsal fins on their backs, which helps them maintain better balance when swimming in the water. Paleontologists believe that a similar structure may have existed in the body of the Wakayama blue dragon.
The most unique thing is the Wakayama Blue Dragon, especially the pair of paddle-like webbed feet on the tail, which are much longer than their counterparts in other places. This peculiar shape puzzled Koenig, an archaeologist at the University of Cincinnati who thought he was familiar with the dragon.
From fish to penguins to turtles, we haven't found any other creature with this size," he said. No other animal has four webbed legs that are so large and can work with the dorsal fin as it swims. ”
A team of paleontologists in Japan believe that the fins of the Wakayama blue dragon should have a similar effect, and its tail should be used for propulsion. As can be seen from **5, the plesiosaur had a slender tail, while the Wakayama blue dragon had a much larger tail, so it was able to generate more power when swimming. This is also the reason why that giant dragon was able to suppress the plesiosaur.
Overall, the Wakayama Blue Dragon is very special, and further excavation is needed to figure out how it survived.