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Amazing fossils: Tracks of a fleeing sauropod
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Two predators, two prey, but only three animals
The Paluxy trackways Discovered: Glen Rose, Texas, 1938 Age: 111 million years Location: Part at the American Museum of Natural History
The massive sauropod fled along the shore closely pursued by a huge predator similar to T. rex. The trail of footprints they left behind has survived for over 100 million years. Exactly what happened is not clear. Roland Bird of the American Museum of Natural History, who discovered the footprints in 1938, thought they showed the predator running alongside the sauropod and at one point sinking its teeth into it, missing a step as it was lifted off the ground. Researchers are more cautious today. There is no clear evidence of such an attack, says James Farlow of Indiana University-
“It seems as if the predator was at least stalking the massive sauropod” Purdue University in Fort Wayne, who has studied the trackway. But the predator and sauropod tracks run parallel, and at one point turn together. So it seems the predator was stalking the sauropod, not just heading the same way. There is a whole series of such tracks along the Paluxy river in Glen Rose, Texas. Many sauropods, possibly a large group, walked in one direction. Predatory theropod dinosaurs went both ways parallel to the sauropod tracks, suggesting all were walking near a shoreline. n
2014 Falkingham et al
pterosaur drowned, with the small fish it had caught halfway down its throat. The Aspidorhynchus continued its futile struggle to disentangle itself, but sank into deeper water low in oxygen and died. The bodies of all three animals ended up on the bottom of the lagoon and there they remained, beautifully preserved, until they were dug up 150 million years later. This is the scenario proposed in 2012 by Eberhard Frey of the Karlsruhe State Museum of Natural History in Germany, who studied the fossil (PLoS One, e31945). We cannot be sure about all the details, but there’s no doubt that the pterosaur had just caught a fish, only to be caught by a fish itself. “The attack was a lethal error on the side of Aspidorhynchus,” Frey says. He has proposed that the pterosaur was skim-feeding – flying along with its lower beak in the water – before it was caught. But Mark Witton at the University of Portsmouth, UK, author of the book Pterosaurs, says no pterosaur had any of the specialisations of skim-feeding birds, such as a reinforced skull to withstand high-speed impacts. It is more likely they flew low and dipped their jaws into the water to grab prey.
The fighting dinosaurs Big Mama Snake eating baby dino§ The mating turtles Ichthyosaur giving birth Fish catching fish-catching pterosaur The Paluxy trackways
Thrill of the chase: are these the tracks of a predator and its giant sauropod prey?
Jeff Hecht is a consultant for New Scientist based in Boston Michael Le Page is a feature editor for New Scientist 21 February | NewScientist | 39
Two predators, two prey, but only three animals
The Paluxy trackways Discovered: Glen Rose, Texas, 1938 Age: 111 million years Location: Part at the American Museum of Natural History
The massive sauropod fled along the shore closely pursued by a huge predator similar to T. rex. The trail of footprints they left behind has survived for over 100 million years. Exactly what happened is not clear. Roland Bird of the American Museum of Natural History, who discovered the footprints in 1938, thought they showed the predator running alongside the sauropod and at one point sinking its teeth into it, missing a step as it was lifted off the ground. Researchers are more cautious today. There is no clear evidence of such an attack, says James Farlow of Indiana University-
“It seems as if the predator was at least stalking the massive sauropod” Purdue University in Fort Wayne, who has studied the trackway. But the predator and sauropod tracks run parallel, and at one point turn together. So it seems the predator was stalking the sauropod, not just heading the same way. There is a whole series of such tracks along the Paluxy river in Glen Rose, Texas. Many sauropods, possibly a large group, walked in one direction. Predatory theropod dinosaurs went both ways parallel to the sauropod tracks, suggesting all were walking near a shoreline. n
2014 Falkingham et al
pterosaur drowned, with the small fish it had caught halfway down its throat. The Aspidorhynchus continued its futile struggle to disentangle itself, but sank into deeper water low in oxygen and died. The bodies of all three animals ended up on the bottom of the lagoon and there they remained, beautifully preserved, until they were dug up 150 million years later. This is the scenario proposed in 2012 by Eberhard Frey of the Karlsruhe State Museum of Natural History in Germany, who studied the fossil (PLoS One, e31945). We cannot be sure about all the details, but there’s no doubt that the pterosaur had just caught a fish, only to be caught by a fish itself. “The attack was a lethal error on the side of Aspidorhynchus,” Frey says. He has proposed that the pterosaur was skim-feeding – flying along with its lower beak in the water – before it was caught. But Mark Witton at the University of Portsmouth, UK, author of the book Pterosaurs, says no pterosaur had any of the specialisations of skim-feeding birds, such as a reinforced skull to withstand high-speed impacts. It is more likely they flew low and dipped their jaws into the water to grab prey.
The fighting dinosaurs Big Mama Snake eating baby dino§ The mating turtles Ichthyosaur giving birth Fish catching fish-catching pterosaur The Paluxy trackways
Thrill of the chase: are these the tracks of a predator and its giant sauropod prey?
Jeff Hecht is a consultant for New Scientist based in Boston Michael Le Page is a feature editor for New Scientist 21 February | NewScientist | 39