The 95 million-year-old fossils of a flying reptile have been identified as that of a new pterosaur species.

The pterosaur named Aetodactylus halli is identified on the basis of lower jawbone found outside of Dallas by amateur fossil hunter Lance Hall. A new study claims that the slender jaw filled with thin, needlelike teeth might have helped the create catch fish from the shallow sea which once covered the region.

Timothy Myers from Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and the lead researcher said, "It was hanging out near the ocean, and that is probably where it derived its food from."

Myers and his team after the analysys of the fossils concluded that the creature was a medium-size animal with a short tail and nine-foot wingspan. Myers said that this A. halli is one of the youngest members yet found in the Ornithocheiridae family.

The creature had 54 teeth in its lower jaw which is not common in ornithoceirids as most had only 30 lower jaw teeth. The fossil was found in marine rocks exposed near a highway in Mansfield, southwest of Dallas.

Pterosaurs are said to be ruling the skies more than 200 million years ago until the dinosaurs went extinct. There fossils are common around the world but have been rare in Texas and A. halli is only the second ornithoceirid to have been discovered in North America.