Storms Caused Injuries and Deaths of Young Pterosaurs in Solnhofen

This story tells of a pterosaur from Solnhofen who lived about 150 million years ago. According to new data, adult pterosaurs in fossil samples from the region are rarely recorded not because of frequent survival events, but because bodies after death did not always quickly reach the bottom. The body could float in the water for several days to weeks, and as it decomposed, parts sank to the lagoon floor. Younger individuals were so small that they were easily carried away by currents, and they quickly sank beneath a layer of sediment, where preservation was much more difficult.

Fractures of the humerus, identified in the Lucky I and Lucky II specimens, lend this study particular significance: injuries to the forelimbs are among the most common pathologies among modern flying vertebrates. The humerus attaches the wing to the body and bears the main load during flight, so its damage is often encountered during flight. It is the humerus fractures that were the only fully preserved trauma among all the young pterosaurs found from Solnhofen.

The same storm events that were responsible for burying these individuals also carried pterosaurs into lagoon basins and, likely, became the main cause of their injuries and deaths.

Evidence that the injuries of two young pterosaurs occurred before death includes the displacement of bones during flight and the smooth edges of fractures that formed in life, as opposed to the sharp edges after death, as well as the absence of signs of healing. Storm conditions at Solnhofen significantly affected flying creatures: they often died from strong winds, with many of the recorded vertebrates being pterosaurs and other winged species, including the ancestor of birds Archaeopteryx. Flying invertebrates also faced threats, as did marine invertebrates and fish that mingled with the lagoon waters.

Although Lucky I and Lucky II were extremely unfortunate, their durable, exceptionally well-preserved skeletons finally allow us to unravel a case that had long remained cold for over a hundred thousand years.

We now have a better sense of pterosaur life in the late Jurassic and can understand which events may have influenced their deaths and preservation in the lagoon environments of Solnhofen. Such discoveries open the door to a deeper understanding of the biology and behavior of these remarkable flying reptiles.