The elongated skulls of some ancient flying reptiles made them look more dangerous, allowing them to go hunting without having to wear themselves out under the Jurassic sun, say paleontologists Alexander Kellner and Diogenes Campos of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro.While excavating the Araripe plateau in Brazil, Kellner and Campos discovered the well-preserved skull of an unknown pterosaur, the 110-million-year-old Thalassodromeus sethi.
The inside of the cranial crest is filled with grooves that look like blood vessels; such a network would have been effective in transferring heat from the body to the environment.
The enormous crest, which extends from the tip of the beak to almost the nape of the neck, the scissor-shaped beak, and the 4.60-meter wingspan of the T, sethi evoke the image of a flying demon, and hence the name Seth, by the Egyptian god of chaos and violence.
