science

Newly-discovered fossils have allowed scientists to reveal a 240-million-year-old “dragon” in its entirety for the first ever time, National Museums Scotland (NMS) said in a statement on Friday.

The five-meter-long reptile from the Triassic period in China was first identified in 2003 but, after studying five newer specimens for ten years, scientists were able to depict the entire creature, which is named Dinocephalosaurus orientalis.

One fully articulated fossil, the last to come to light, offered a “beautiful complete specimen from the tip of the nose right down to the tip of the tail,” Dr Nick Fraser, keeper of National Sciences at NMS and one of the researchers, told CNN.