September 24, 2025

Toward the back of the front section of my local newspaper was a Reuters article about the demise of two flying reptiles.  Scientists suggest both specimens were caught in the powerful winds of tropical storms which snapped the upper arm bone (humerus) that helped support its membranous wing, then flung the helpless animal into a lagoon where they drowned and were covered by mud.  The exact same wind-caused fracture appeared during examinations on fossils of two individuals unearthed years ago in separate locales in the southern German state of Bavaria.  The fossils, of slightly different ages, were stored in two museum collections.  Paleontologist Rab Smyth of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and lead author of the study published in the journal Current Biology, said, “We noticed the injuries completely by chance.”  Researchers nicknamed the two hatchlings Lucky and Lucky II.  While it was bad luck to be doomed by storms, it was good luck that paleontologists have been able to learn from their fossils about the anatomy of young pterosaurs.

When I went online, I found Pterodactylus (Ancient Greek, ‘winged finger’) is a genus of extinct pterosaurs thought to contain a single species (Pterodactylus antiquus).  This was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile and one of the first prehistoric reptiles to ever be discovered.  Fossil remains of Pterodactylus are primarily found in the Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria, Germany, which dates from the Late Jurassic period (Tithonian stage), about 150.8 to 148.5 million years ago, but fragmentary remains have been identified elsewhere in Europe and Africa.  Pterodactylus was a small pterosaur, with an adult wingspan at about 3 feet (1 m).  They possessed relatively short and broad wings, a lightly built body and a long, pointed beak lined with small, conical teeth.  Pterodactylus was a generalist carnivore that fed on invertebrates and vertebrates.  The wings were formed by a skin and muscle membrane stretching from its elongated fourth finger to its hind limbs and supported internally by collagen fibers and externally by keratinous ridges.  The species was small compared to other famous genera such as Pteranodon longiceps and Quetzalcoatlus northropi which lived during the Late Cretaceous.

Pterodactylus was the first pterosaur described by science in 1784 and fossils of more than 50 individuals of various sizes have been discovered.  The two in the study were a few days to weeks old when they died, with a wingspan less than 8 inches (20 cm).  The fossils of both animals show the upper arm bone broken in a diagonal split along the shaft which suggests the wing was bent under tremendous pressure (i.e., strong winds or waves during a storm).  The storm likely carried them several miles (km), from their original habitat and into the lagoon.  Smyth said, “While a broken wing alone probably would not have been immediately fatal, the fact that they sank quickly to the bottom suggests they inhaled water and drowned.”  They were rapidly buried in the fine sediments of the storm beds where the oxygen-poor conditions protected their delicate bodies from scavengers.

THOUGHTS: I was fascinated with dinosaurs as a boy and one of my favorites was Pterodactylus.  My small plastic models were marked with the name, length, and weight that I had committed to memory.  Paleontology began as a formal science in the early 1800’s and the discovery of dinosaurs in England was crucial in establishing the field.  The end of the 1960’s saw a surge in dinosaur research activity that is ongoing.  The large predators first depicted as sluggish creatures have been replaced by agile (often smaller) individuals.  When we take time to examine what we do not know it always leads to new comprehension.  That is also true with other people and cultures.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.