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RickRaptor105 — Forever together
Published: 2012-03-12 21:51:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 2794; Favourites: 37; Downloads: 76
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Description
I guess you all know the famous fossil of Velociraptor and Protoceratops locked together in death. As recent discoveries show this wasn´t the only death struggle eternalized in stone.Several fossils from the Solnhofen limestone in southern Germany (the place where Archaeopteryx and Compsognathus have been discovered) show the pterosaur Rhamphorhynchus lying next to the bony fish Aspidorhynchus. One of these fossils showed the pterosaur having just swallowed a small fish in its throat sac, so the large fish weren´t scavenging, but attacking live pterosaurs. Apparently the Aspidorhynchus only attacked the pterosaur by mistake (its small, thin jaws are not build to eat such an awkwardly shaped animal) and once its toothy snout got entangled in the pterosaur´s fibrous wing membrane it hopelessly sank to the anoxic bottom water where it suffocated.
First drawing based on this amazing discovery on DA!
(or even the internet, considering there are only photos of the fossil)
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Comments: 12
This might be a neat idea for a future episode of Phineas and Ferb in Primeval.
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How? All they could do is watch from a boat the pterosaur and the fish slowly sinking to the bottom.
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I mean that could be a scene for an episode. The real threat they might encounter at that time might be Liopleurodon, Predator X, Pliosaurus, and Dakosaurus.
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Isn´t featuring three giant pliosaur species which look almost identical in a single episode exaggerated? That would be like sending them to Late Cretaceous North America and encounter Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus and Daspletosaurus.
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I didn't mean put all three of them in one episode. I meant one of the three.
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Nice depiction. I thought that the fish had grabbed the pterosaur with its jaws, not stabbed it, though.
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If it would have just grabbed it with its jaws it could have easily let it go again.
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Hm. Maybe. You sure that it didn't deliberately wanted to eat it?
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No, the most likely explanation is that both had their sights on the same small fish and just when the Aspidorhynchus was about to strike the pterosaur caught the fish and swallowed it, so the Aspidorhynchus missed its prey and rammed into the pterosaur´s wing.
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Well, that's a reasonable theory, fair enough. Anyways, I liked your drawing to begin with. Cheers.
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