Fossils show pair of baby pterosaurs ‘died in violent storm’
The cause of death of two young pterosaurs that had baffled researchers has been revealed by paleontologists in Germany in what they have described as “a post-mortem 150 million years in the making”.
Analysis of the well-preserved fossils of the hatchlings, found in the lagoonal deposits that make up the Solnhofen Limestones of southern Germany, revealed both the flying reptiles sustained similar injuries immediately prior to their deaths – broken wings.
The team, from the University of Leicester’s Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution, said the discovery is powerful evidence of ancient tropical storms and how they shaped the fossil record.
The cause of death of two young pterosaurs that had baffled researchers has been revealed by paleontologists in Germany in what they have described as “a post-mortem 150 million years in the making”.
Analysis of the well-preserved fossils of the hatchlings, found in the lagoonal deposits that make up the Solnhofen Limestones of southern Germany, revealed both the flying reptiles sustained similar injuries immediately prior to their deaths – broken wings.
The team, from the University of Leicester’s Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution, said the discovery is powerful evidence of ancient tropical storms and how they shaped the fossil record.
4 comments:
BCBBC headline. Young of vulnerable species threatened by Climate Change killed in the worst storm in their living memory.
Doonhamer - extinction due to catastrophic storms turbocharged by climate change.
“the lagoonal deposits that make up the Solnhofen Limestones of southern Germany”
Just trips off the tongue, that does.
James - it's lagoonal deposits poetry.
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