Paleontologists on the College of Leicester have examined the 150-million-year-old fossilized skeletons of two extremely immature Pterodactylus antiquus people with damaged wings from the Solnhofen Limestones of southern Germany. Their findings present how these creatures had been tragically struck down by highly effective Jurassic storms that additionally created the perfect circumstances to protect them and lots of extra fossils like them.
An artist’s impression of a tiny Pterodactylus antiquus hatchling struggling in opposition to a raging tropical storm, impressed by fossil discoveries. Picture credit score: Rudolf Hima.
“The Late Jurassic Solnhofen limestone deposits of Bavaria, southern Germany, courting to 153-148 million years in the past, are famend for his or her exquisitely preserved fossils, together with many specimens of pterosaurs, the flying reptiles of the Mesozoic,” mentioned College of Leicester paleontologist Rab Smyth and colleagues.
“But right here lies a thriller: whereas Solnhofen has yielded lots of of pterosaur fossils, practically all are very small, very younger people, completely preserved.”
“Against this, bigger, grownup pterosaurs are not often discovered, and when they’re, they’re represented solely by fragments (typically remoted skulls or limbs).”
“This sample runs counter to expectations: bigger, extra sturdy animals ought to stand a greater likelihood of fossilization than delicate juveniles.”
Within the new research, the authors analyzed the fossilized skeletons of two immature pterosaurs from the Solnhofen Limestones.
The 2 people belong to Pterodactylus antiquus, a species of pterosaur that lived in what’s now Germany through the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic epoch.
With wingspans of lower than 20 cm (8 inches), these hatchlings are among the many smallest of all identified pterosaurs.
Each present the identical uncommon harm: a clear, slanted fracture to the humerus.
Neonatal examples of Pterodactylus antiquus from the Solnhofen Limestones, Germany. Scale bars – 20 mm. Picture credit score: Smyth et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.006.
The left wing of 1 particular person and the appropriate wing of one other had been each damaged in a approach that means a strong twisting drive, seemingly the results of highly effective gusts of wind fairly than a collision with a tough floor.
Catastrophically injured, the pterosaurs plunged into the floor of the lagoon, drowning within the storm pushed waves and shortly sinking to the seabed the place they had been quickly buried by very wonderful limy muds stirred up by the dying storms.
This speedy burial allowed for the exceptional preservation seen of their fossils.
Like the 2 studied pterosaurs, which had been just a few days or perhaps weeks outdated after they died, there are various different small, very younger pterosaurs within the Solnhofen Limestones, preserved in the identical approach, however with out apparent proof of skeletal trauma.
Unable to withstand the energy of storms these younger pterosaurs had been additionally flung into the lagoon.
This discovery explains why smaller fossils are so properly preserved — they had been a direct results of storms — a standard reason for dying for pterosaurs that lived within the area.
“For hundreds of years, scientists believed that the Solnhofen lagoon ecosystems had been dominated by small pterosaurs,” Dr. Smyth mentioned.
“However we now know this view is deeply biased. Many of those pterosaurs weren’t native to the lagoon in any respect.”
“Most are inexperienced juveniles that had been seemingly dwelling on close by islands that had been sadly caught up in highly effective storms.”
A paper on the findings was printed at this time within the journal Present Biology.
_____
Robert S.H. Smyth et al. Deadly accidents in neonatal pterosaurs and selective sampling within the Solnhofen fossil assemblage. Present Biology, printed on-line September 5, 2025; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.006
