Remains of new flying reptile species spotted in UK museum drawer

Student finds mislabelled fragment of pterosaur, which flew over eastern England up to 66m years ago

A fossil that been had languishing in a museum drawer in Brighton, wrongly labelled as a shark fin skeleton, has now been identified as a completely new species of prehistoric flying reptile that soared majestically over what are now the Cambridgeshire fens.

Roy Smith, a University of Portsmouth PhD student, identified the creature after realising it was much more unusual and interesting than its label suggested. He identified the fossil as the tip of the beak of a new species of pterosaur (from the Greek for winged lizard"), a creature that existed 228m-66m years ago and the earliest vertebrate known to have evolved powered flight.