Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
Palaeontologists have found the tell-tale signs of an attack by a crocodile-like animal on the fossilised neck bone of a juvenile pterosaur – a flying reptile – dating to the Cretaceous period.
The specimen was a species of azhdarchid pterosaur – the largest animals to ever fly – known as Cryodrakon boreas. While the juvenile had an estimated wingspan of 2m, an adult of the species would have grown as tall as a giraffe with wings as much as 10m across.
“Pterosaur bones are very delicate – so finding fossils where another animal has clearly taken a bite is exceptionally uncommon,” says Dr Caleb Brown from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Canada, lead author of a paper presenting the finding in the Journal of Palaentology.
“This specimen being a juvenile makes it even more rare.”
The vertebra – discovered in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada – has a circular, 4mm-wide puncture mark from a crocodilian tooth.
“Bite traces help to document species interactions from this period,” says co-author of the paper Dr Brian Pickles from the University of Reading, UK.
“We can’t say if the pterosaur was alive or dead when it was bitten but the specimen shows that crocodilians occasionally preyed on, or scavenged, juvenile pterosaurs in prehistoric Alberta over 70 million years ago.”
