Fossils show pair of baby pterosaurs ‘died in violent storm’
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150-million-year-old mystery solved by skeletons of baby pterosaurs
- Palaeontologists in Germany have uncovered the cause of death for two young pterosaurs, nicknamed Lucky and Lucky II, whose well-preserved fossils were discovered in the Solnhofen Limestones.
- The 150-million-year-old hatchlings both exhibited identical broken wings, specifically a clean, slanted fracture to the humerus.
- Researchers from the University of Leicester concluded that the injuries were inflicted by powerful winds from a tropical storm, which broke their wings before they drowned.
- The palaeontologists described solving the mystery as carrying out “a post-mortem 150 million years in the making”.
- They said the pterosaurs were so well-preserved because they were “very rapidly buried by very fine limy muds stirred up by the death storms”, and were powerful evidence of how storms shaped the fossil record.