There are many ways for ancient creatures to die. Let's talk about choking today.

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There are only two kinds of creatures in the world-those that already appear in the species calendar and those that will appear in the species calendar. There are not only some strange "cold knowledge", but also rich "mind-wandering" natural science popularization. A species every day will show you the world.

I believe we have all heard the idiom "the mantis catches the cicada, the yellow sparrow is behind", and a specimen found in the late Jurassic strata in Germany perfectly illustrates this scene. The difference is that the animals participating in the "show" became pterodactyl preying on small fish, followed by big fish, but this was not a successful prey.

The big fish who misjudged the situation was so greedy that he could not get rid of the body of the pterosaur, stuck in his mouth and could not spit it out. Finally, together with himself, he was buried in this Jurassic lake, forever fixed on his last failed hunt.

Imagine a pterodactyl bitten by a big fish | PaleoEquii / Wikimedia Commons

A vivid moment of predation

The discovery comes from a fossil specimen numbered WDC CSG 255, currently hidden at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center (Wyoming Dinosaur Center, WDC) in the United States, but it comes from the Solohofen formation of the late Jurassic in Bavaria, Germany, where the famous Archaeopteryx was born. The origin of this fossil revolves around the predation and predation of a beaked pterosaur (Rhamphorhynchus).

The beak-billed pterosaur is a kind of Jurassic medium-sized pterosaur. It has been found that the largest beak-billed pterosaur has a wingspan of about 1.8 meters and contains many primitive features, such as tusks suitable for fishing, crisscross between the upper and lower jaw, and a long tail. Unlike the more familiar large Cretaceous pterosaurs, these more progressive species have a wingspan of more than 10 meters and have no tail or teeth in their mouths.

Beaked pterosaurs have staggered fangs and long tails (unrelated specimens) | M0tty / Wikimedia Commons

On the specimen of this incident, we can see the fossilized beak-billed pterosaur with complete bones. Looking closely at the position of its throat, we can also see that it had not had time to swallow its last meal before it was alive. It may be an extinct fish called Leptolepis. The fish is in the esophagus and has not been digested by stomach acid.

In the past, there were two hypotheses about how beaked pterosaurs preyed on fish: catching fish with their hind legs or skimming across the water with their long beaks. Through this pterodactyl form, it can be found that you can stay for a short time if you fish with your hind legs, so you are less likely to fish for a long time. While flying close to the surface of the water, fishing with the mouth can be maintained for a long time, the long tail can also help balance in the air, coupled with the fluctuation caused by flapping wings can also attract schools of fish, these characteristics can be more efficient fishing.

WDC CSG 255. there are also dead fish in the esophagus of the pterosaur. Figure C is an enlarged view of the esophagus of figure A. the caudal fin of the fish can be seen on 1, and 2-3 is the structure of the spine, which is well preserved and has not been digested by pterosaurs. Frey and Tischlinger / PLoS One (2012)

The fish found in this belly may have been attracted to the surface by water waves caused by beak-billed pterosaurs and then swallowed into the belly. The evidence that beak-billed pterosaurs may have this habit comes not from its prey, but from another fish that preys on it.

Fatal erroneous hunting.

Apart from the well-preserved last meal of the beaked pterosaur, the most special thing about this specimen is that it is also targeted by another big fish as prey. The large fish, a carnivorous fish called Aspidorhynchus, has found remains and even small reptiles in its belly in the past fossil records, but such attacks on larger prey have never been seen before. But after careful observation, you will find that the hunting of this needle snout fish can be said to be a very failure, even at the cost of its own life.

Restoration image of Needle snout fish | Nobu Tamura / Wikimedia Commons

As mentioned earlier, the beak-billed pterosaur preys by staying close to the surface of the water and feeding with its mouth, and with the help of its tail, it can be maintained at a height of about 5 centimeters from the surface of the water, which is about the height at which the snakefish are likely to jump out of the water to attack their prey. Therefore, through this preyed pterosaur, it indirectly proved its predation mode. Of course, it is also possible that the needle beak fish attacked the pterosaur that died accidentally on the surface of the water, but it can be judged from the pterosaur's esophagus that it had just caught its last meal when it was attacked, so it is more likely to have been dragged into the water alive and drowned.

So why is it that the prey was a failure? first of all, according to the mobility of the skeletal structure of the head, there is no way to swallow such a large prey, and from the abdominal residues of other needle snout fossils, it can also be confirmed that they are mainly small prey, and larger creatures such as pterosaurs are not their main food at all.

The beak-billed pterosaur in the WDC CSG 255specimen is held in the mouth by Needle Fish. | Frey and Tischlinger / PLoS One (2012)

In addition, it can be seen in the fossils that the snakefish's mouth is not biting the bones of the beaked pterosaur, but in the position of the pterosaur. The beak-billed pterosaur is completely connected except for the partial separation of the knuckles supporting the pterygium on the wing that was bitten. From this, the scientists inferred that the fish may have been trapped by the fibers on the pterosaur after it bit the pterosaur. It shook its head to break free, but even though it broke its knuckles, the pterygoid was still connected. Finally, it lost its strength and sank into the water along with this oversized prey, which was buried and fossilized and preserved to this day.

Conclusion

The discovery of this specimen recreates a complex ecological event, gives us a glimpse into the life patterns and food chains of ancient extinctions, and indirectly proves the more likely predation methods of beaked pterosaurs. But although we have constructed a rough picture of what happened, recent scientific research continues to complement or challenge the theories of the past.

More recent studies, for example, suggest that beaked pterosaurs may not fly on the surface to hunt, but may be semi-aquatic like waterbirds and catch fish in the water. The study presented a number of evidence that may be aquatic, and can also well explain the accident of this specimen. Exactly how the beaked pterosaurs will hunt depends on further scientific research and fossil evidence.