The stunning fossil discovery revealed two baby pterosaurs struck during a “devastating” tropical storm 150 million years ago.
Researchers conducted post-death (necrosis) of animals with two Jurassic Jurassic thick skeletons from Germany, and concluded that violent winds drove flying reptiles into the lagoon, where they owned under the waves of storms.
Unofficially called “Pterodactyls”, the Pterosaurs ruled the sky during the dinosaur era. The fossilized skeleton, documented in a new study, belongs to Pterodactylus antiquus, the first Pterosauris species ever discovered, and gave birth to the nickname Pterodactyl.
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The newborn is two of the smallest P. antiquus specimens ever discovered, and the size of a small bat with a wingspan of approximately 8 inches (20 cm). An analysis of these fossil researchers, published September 5th in Current Biology on September 5th, suggests that they are probably two of the many baby pterosaurs who died in a storm-related mass death event in the area. The estimated wingspan of the adult P. Antix was approximately 3.5 feet (1.1 meters). In other words, it seems better to resist the winds that destined for young people.
According to a statement released by researchers, the baby palace is called “lucky” and “lucky II.” They may have been unlucky to perish in the storm, but scientists were fortunate that their ingenious delicate skeletons were discovered.
“Pterosaurs had an incredibly lightweight skeleton,” said the study of author Rab Smyth, who conducted the study as part of his doctoral research at the University of Leicester in the UK, in a statement. “Hollow thin wall bones are great for flight, but they are terrible for fossils. There is already only a few to preserve, and it’s even more unusual to find fossils that show how animals died.”
Related: “The Goddess of the Dawn of Ash Wings” is the oldest Pterosaurus ever discovered in North America, “small enough to sit on your shoulders
The pterosaurs are preserved in the Jurassic solnhofen platy limestone formations from about 153 million to 148 million years ago and are located in Bavaria, southern Germany. Paleontologists have discovered hundreds of pterosaurus in this layer. This was once a semi-tropical seascape with coral reefs and small islands.
Solnhofen’s fossils are often well preserved young pterosaurs, but adult adults are rare and usually fragmented. This is rare. This is unusual given that larger, robust bones are often more likely to become environmentally stalked and become fossils.
David Unwin, a study co-author who is a paleontologist at the University of Leicester, said that when Smith met Lucky at the Bergel Museum in Haassf, the team was very excited, but thought it was a one-off. Then, a year later, Smith met Lucky II. It is currently on display at Bulgermeistermuller in Solnhoven and is owned by the Bavarian National Collection for Paleontology and Geology of Munich. Researchers examined the fossil with a fluorescent UV torch and saw that Lucky II had a broken arm (part of his wing) before his death.
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“It literally jumped out of our rock – and our hearts stopped,” Unwin said in a statement. “Neither of us will forget that moment.”
Both Lucky and Lucky II had humeral fractures that coincided with excessive wind force in flight, similar to what birds and bats experienced during today’s intense storms. Researchers believe that violent gusts of wind have moved young pterosaurs away from the safety of the land and pushed them into the lagoon. Research shows that storm fuel flows quickly pushed them down to the depths of the water column, burying the body into the deposits.
By studying the two baby pterodas, along with data collected from over 40 other Pterodactylus individuals, the team concluded that Solnhofen has so many small pterodas because larger individuals could resist due to these devastating mass death events like these storms.
“For centuries, scientists believed that the ecosystem of Solnhofen Lagoon was dominated by small pterosaurs,” Smith said. “However, this view is known to be deeply biased. Many of these palaces were not endemic to the lagoon. Most are inexperienced boys who unfortunately lived on nearby islands caught in a powerful storm.”
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