Argentine scientists discovered a new species of a huge flying reptile dubbed “The Dragon of Death” that lived 86 million years ago alongside dinosaurs, in a find shedding fresh insight on a predator whose body was as long as a school bus.

The new specimen of ancient flying reptile, or pterosaur, measured around 30 feet (9 meters) long and researchers say it predated birds as among the first creatures on Earth to use wings to hunt its prey from prehistoric skies.

The team of paleontologists discovered the fossils of the newly coined Thanatosdrakon amaru in the Andes mountains in Argentina’s western Mendoza province. They found that the rocks preserving the reptile’s remains dated back 86 million years to the Cretaceous period.

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The estimated date means these fearsome flying reptiles lived at least some 20 million years before an asteroid impact on what is now Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula wiped out about three-quarters of life on the planet about 66 millions years ago.

Read more: jpost