Provided by Will Dunham
(Reuters) – The tropical storm boiled over the island chain in the huge tethys ocean – the ancient Indian Ocean and Mediterranean predecessor – one day about 150 million years ago, and in a powerful wind, a baby pterosaur was caught in a powerful breeze.
The tiny flying reptile hatch could already fly even when they were gentle, but this storm was too much. The wind struck the humerus, the upper arm bone, which helped to support its membrane wing, and naked a helpless animal into the lagoon, where it drowned and covered with delicious dirt.
Scientists said they found the same obvious fracture caused by the wind, while performing the equivalents of the postmortem study associated with well -preserved fossils of two baby pterodactyl, in separate places in the southern state of Bavaria in separate places. The fossils of a little different age were stored in two museum collections.
“We fully noticed the injuries by accident until we looked at them,” said Paleontologist Rab Smhy from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the main author of the study published this month in the Current Biology magazine.
Researchers nicknamed two hatches and Lucky II was also lucky. They had a failure that they were condemned to a storm, but the science of success is that paleontologists were able to learn from their fossils about the anatomy of young pterosaurus and the drama of life during the Jurassic period.
Pterosaurs, dinosaur cousins, were the first vertebrate animals to reach a powerful flight and later birds and bats. Pterodactylus was the first pterosaur described in 1784. In science. More than 50 fossils of various sizes were discovered.
Two in the new study were extremely young when they died, probably just a few days to weeks. They were small with less than eight inches (20 cm), “small enough to sit in the palm of the hand,” said Smhy.
“Their bones were still quite delicate and were not fully formed, which is one of the clues showing how young they were,” Smyt added, working in a study at the University of Lester in England.
Fossils suggested clues about how they died.
“The main evidence is due to injuries preserved in their fossils. In both animals, the upper arm bone was broken in a diagonal broken along the shaft. Such damage is unusual because it does not appear to be an accident, a fall or attack on a predator.
“We can imagine a few options for what wigs could do while the storm struck. They could practice flight, hunting insects and other small invertebrates or even sleeping in the islands. When a storm struck, weighed just a few grams, they had no chance of their habits.
“While one broken wing would probably not have been deadly, the fact that they quickly drowned to the bottom indicates that they inspired the water and drowned. Then they were quickly buried in small storm beds. Oxygen and poor conditions were protected from their subtle bodies from their final moments.
Pterodactylus was a relatively small pterosaurus, and the width of the adult wings was about three feet (one meter). They had relatively short and wide wings, easy -to -build body and a long, pointed beak lined with small, tapered teeth.
“Even as Hatchlings, they already had the same basic wing structure as adults, which means they could probably take a flight very early and lived as small, independent flyers, not relying on their parents,” said Smhy.
Fossils give a look at the life of the Jurassic period.
“It is easy to imagine the prehistoric world of giant animals, but the environment was as modest and complicated as our today. In this age of giants, most animals were small, including small beings such as these pterodactyls to climb, each browsing everyday dangers,” said Smhy.
Fossils, Smyt, said: “Give us a rare look at the fragility of the smallest creatures, making their story much more gloomy.”
(Will Dunham’s message in Washington; edited by Daniel Wallis)