Dragon
A family walks past a dragon and a horse lantern installations during a lantern carnival in Hefei, Anhui province, December 18, 2013. According to local media, the three-month-long event which displays more than 100 lantern installations started on December 18, ahead of 2014, which is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac. Picture taken December 18, 2013. Reuters

An ancient flying reptile has been investigated by scientists who claim that it is similar to the aerial predators known as 'ikran' in the movie 'Avatar'. The similarities in the creatures have led to the discoverers naming the reptile after the dragon-like predators in the movie.

The dragon, pterosaur that were the first vertebrates to flap their wings in order to fly, was named Ikrandraco avatar, Ikran and avatar after the movie and draco means dragon in Latin, according to LiveScience.

The pterosaurs were considered to be the biggest animals that flew before their extinction and their wings spanned a total of 4.9 feet. They measured 2.3 feet in length and had an elongated skull.

The head resembles the creature, Ikran as seen in the movie 'Avatar', said lead author of the study, Xaoling Wang of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in the Chinese Academy of Science.

A unique feature of the dragon was that it had a bulge, a little hookline structure, on its lower jaw. The researchers suggest that this could be because the dragons performed a function similar to the way the pelican stored food in a pouch in its throat.

The researchers said that the ikran-like creature could have foraged for its food by going over waters and picking up prey from the surface, though it may not have skimmed regularly. Wang added that it could have standing in shallow water during the course of the hunt.

The reptile used to live in large freshwater lakes with a warm climate alongside animals like fish, frogs, turtles, birds and mammals and plants like ferns, gingkos, cycads and conifers.

Two partial skeletons of the species that dated back about 120 million years ago were investigated by the scientist who had unearthed the fossils from arid hills in Liaoning province in China. The province has gained importance because of the amount of feathered dinosaurs that were unearthed there in the course of the last ten years.

The details of the findings were put up on the online journal Scientific Reports last Sep. 11.