Overview

• A University of Leicester team examined two tiny Pterodactylus hatchlings from Germany’s Solnhofen Limestones nicknamed Lucky and Lucky II.
• Both fossils display identical clean, diagonal breaks in the humerus that researchers interpret as twisting injuries consistent with extreme wind gusts.
• The hatchlings likely drowned in a lagoon and were rapidly buried by fine, lime‑rich sediments, yielding nearly intact, articulated skeletons.
• The authors propose that violent storms disproportionately killed and preserved small juveniles, helping explain the rarity of adult pterosaurs at Solnhofen.
• The study, led by Rab Smyth with co‑author David Unwin and funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, is published in Current Biology.