Overview

• University of Leicester researchers report in Current Biology (September 5) that two neonatal Pterodactylus, nicknamed Lucky and Lucky II, died during violent tropical storms.
• Both hatchlings show clean, diagonal breaks to the humerus consistent with twisting forces from extreme winds rather than impact with hard surfaces.
• The storms likely drove the young pterosaurs into a lagoon where they drowned, and rapid burial in fine limestone preserved their articulated skeletons in exceptional detail.
• The team concludes that storm-driven juvenile mortality helps explain the abundance of small pterosaur fossils at Solnhofen and the scarcity and fragmentary nature of adult remains.
• UV-stimulated fluorescence revealed otherwise hidden damage patterns, and the work, led by Rab Smyth with co-authors Rachel Belben, Richard Thomas and David M. Unwin, acknowledges funding from NERC via the CENTA Doctoral Training Partnership.