This Ichthyosaur Chomped a Pterosaur—Then Got Chomped by Something Bigger
Sometimes you’re the predator, sometimes you’re the prey The post This Ichthyosaur Chomped a Pterosaur—Then Got Chomped by Something Bigger appeared first on Nautilus .
In a remarkable discovery made in 2019 by fossil hunters in Queensland, Australia, a 20-foot long ichthyosaur was found to have consumed a pterosaur, a flying reptile, moments before its own demise. The ichthyosaur, which once swam in the Cretaceous period Eromanga Sea, is the first known instance of a marine reptile preying on a flying reptile.
The team of paleontologists, led by Matt White from the University of New England, used 3-D neutron tomography to examine the ichthyosaur's stomach contents. They found concreted remains consisting primarily of seafood, but also a fragment of a pterosaur's jaw. This unusual find suggests that the ichthyosaur snatched a pterosaur out of the sky before being attacked by a larger predator.
The skeleton of the ichthyosaur was in poor condition, with split vertebrae, missing ribs, and numerous bones displaying large bite marks, indicating a forceful jaw processing. The only known predator capable of producing such injuries in the Eromanga Sea was the Kronosaurus queenslandicus, a giant pliosaur measuring more than 40-feet long.
This discovery adds to the complexity of the prehistoric food chain and demonstrates that there was always a bigger reptile in the prehistoric seas.
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