Fossil of 76 million-year-old flying dinosaur discovered in Canada

Paleontologists have examined the fossil of a young flying dinosaur that was bitten by the ancestor of modern crocodiles about 76 million years ago. According to scientists, such a find is extremely rare.

The fossilized remains were discovered in the Provincial Dinosaur Park in Canada. The study, published in the Journal of Paleontology, involved scientists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology (Canada), the University of Reading (UK), and the University of New England (Australia). This is reported by Interesting Engineering.

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous period and became the first vertebrates capable of flight. As part of the new study, the researchers examined a fossilized vertebra of a young Cryodrakon boreas, a representative of the azhdarhid pterosaurs. Its wings reached about two meters in span, and adults of this species could reach ten meters in width, having a height comparable to giraffes.

During the analysis of the vertebrae, the researchers found a clear round mark with a diameter of four millimeters. They are convinced that it was left by the bite of an ancient crocodile-like predator. Co-author of the study, Dr. Brian Pickles of the University of Reading, noted that these marks help to understand the interaction of species at that time. Whether the pterosaur was alive at the time of the bite remains unknown, but the find confirms that crocodiles did occasionally prey on young pterosaurs in prehistoric Alberta more than 70 million years ago.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, emphasized that due to the fragility of pterosaur bones, fossils with such marks are extremely rare. Additional analysis ruled out the possibility that the mark could have appeared during the fossilization process or during excavation, confirming its origin as a real wound from another animal's bite.

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