Eeny MeeNy MINY MO catches Pterosaur with your neck

About 76 million years ago, something bitten from a young palace.

When the dinosaur ruled the earth, the wing dragon was a large and flying reptile, which was large and flying. Some species were giants. But even their big sizes were not keeping them away from the menu.

Anti -biologist found a tooth mark on the vertebra of the neck of the wing dragon, who has died in Alberta. A paper published last week in Journal of Paleontology suggests that the teeth were made by the crocodile's predecessor, Relative, which had a young palace from the coast or a crocodile. This fossil is currently on display at the Royaltilel Museum in Drum Heller, Alberta.

Pterosaurs came in all forms and sizes and was found around the world while in office on the earth. However, they often had vulnerable bones that were often destroyed before being stored in fossil records. Ancientist mainly finds this kind of neck and finger bones, which makes them “very mysterious,” said David Horn, an old -fashioned student at Queen Mary University in London.

However, scientists actually say, “I have a much better idea about what I eat than they are eating,” said one of the new research authors, the old -fashioned Tyrell Museum. Calb Brown, a curator, said. Anti -biologist has so far, with a long bone partially digested on the belly of a velocyaptor, which is not open in Mongolia, with a tooth mark like a crocodile found in Romania. Only four -winged insect fossils suggest that meals have eaten sometimes in a reptile.

This latest fossil -2 -inch neck vertebrales were discovered in 2023 during the discovery of a dinosaur park in the Bad Lands in Alberta. “You can't literally walk without stepping on the dinosaur bones,” said Brown, because the area remains very rich.

He and his museum have identified that fossils belong to Boreas, a young Cleodoracon. The full -growing members of this kind had a wings width of more than 30 feet. This young man was still growing, reaching only 6 feet wings when he died.

While investigating fossils, Dr. Brown noticed something that looked like a small bite. The team examined the puncture hole under a microscope and sent bones for CT scan. What they found was consistent with the punk made by teeth when the bones were still fresh.

Identing the bitter was the next piece of the puzzle. There were many potential candidates. The Cretaceous Alberta was north of today, but it was a lush tropical area adjacent to inland sea. Many large dinosaurs, crocodile and mammals lived in the wetlands near the open water.

However, the dinosaur looked like an unlikely culprit. At that time, the dinosaur species that lived in this area had blades or D -shaped teeth that did not fit the hole -shaped shape. On the other hand, Crocodirin makes a circular punk. The hole is suitable for two kinds of crocodile coexisting with a huge wing dragon. For Dr. Brown, it was the “most likely candidate” of the mark that chews the crocodile predators or scavenger.

Even if there is a high possibility that there is a suspect, no one knows what the last moment of the young Pterosaurus was. As Dr. Brown guessed, was it dead and became a “free lunch” for an empty crocodile? Or was it a victim of ambush?

Both explanations are possible. Like today's crocodile and crocodile, Dr. Horn said that the ancestor of the Cretaceous was “perhaps the hell they could grasp.” “That's what Crocs do.”