Baby pterosaur mystery finally solved by UK scientists after 150 million years
Researchers from the University of Leicester may have cracked the code to a 150-million-year-old mystery.
A 150-million-year-old mystery which has stumped experts for years may have been solved, shedding light on how two prehistoric flying creatures died. Experts at the University of Leicester believe they have cracked how a pair of young pterosaurs, unearthed in southern Germany's Solnhofen Limestones, died.
Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have taken to the skies, living roughly 228 million to 66 million years ago, with these specimens thought to be Pterodactylus. These juvenile animals were found incredibly well-preserved, allowing Leicester-based scientists to finally disclose how these flying lizards perished.
"Pterosaurs had incredibly lightweight skeletons. Hollow, thin-walled bones are ideal for flight but terrible for fossilisation," confirmed Rab Smyth, the project's lead researcher.
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Analysis concludes that both Pterodactylus succumbed to a thunderous tropical storm, which shattered their wings, leading to them plummeting into a lagoon where they then drowned.
This is understood to have taken place during the Jurassic period while the animals, largely based in Europe and Africa, were just weeks, or even days, old.
After being forced into the lagoon by the storm, both pterosaurs sank to the bottom, eventually becoming entombed by the fine limestone sediments located at the base.
PhD student Mr Smyth added: "The odds of preserving one are already slim, and finding a fossil that tells you how the animal died is even rarer."
The theory originates from a clean, diagonal break in the humerus bone in both fossils, suggesting they died in the same incident and that many other fossils had met the same fate.
Leicester's Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere researchers contended that strong twisting forces, such as extreme wind speeds, were to blame for the bone breaks, rather than impact injuries.
Pterodactylus had a wingpan just under 20 centimetres, roughly the size of a modern-day sparrow, featuring a hollow bone structure evolved to take flight, but leaving them vulnerable to severe weather conditions.
Ironically, the University of Leicester team named the creatures Lucky and Lucky II, despite their ill-fated demise.
"For centuries, scientists believed that the Solnhofen lagoon ecosystems were dominated by small pterosaurs," Smyth noted.
"But we now know this view is deeply biased. Many of these pterosaurs weren't native to the lagoon at all.
"Most are inexperienced juveniles that were likely living on nearby islands that were unfortunately caught up in powerful storms."
The average Pterodactyl had a wingspan of one to two meters, or three to six-and-a-half feet, while the larger species, such as the terrifying Quetzalcoatlus northropi, were the largest flying animals to ever exist, rivalling the size of an aeroplane.
Quetzalcoatlus northropi was a giant azhdarchid pterosaur, thankfully now extinct, that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous.
Its wingspan is estimated to have been around 10 to 11 metres, or 33 to 36 feet, though they were likely ground-based predators, relying on their long necks and razor-sharp beaks to devour prey.
They also had hollow bone structures and relied on jumps for takeoff, followed by powerful wing flaps to keep the massive creatures airborne.