Perfect pterosaur found in fossil egg
Find sheds light on prehistoric flying reptiles.
10 June 2004
MICHAEL HOPKIN

The preserved bones of ancient creatures allow fossil-hunters to glimpse
lives lived millions of years ago. But researchers in China have uncovered
the remains of a life that was snatched away before it had even begun.

The unfortunate creature was a pterosaur, report its discoverers Xiaolin
Wang and Zhonghe Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. This
group of flying reptiles were contemporaries of the dinosaurs and abounded
in the Early Cretaceous period when the fossil was created, around 121
million years ago.

The embryo is very well formed, which suggests that it was probably enjoying
its last few days of solitude before emerging into the prehistoric world.
But it never got the chance. Wang and Zhou believe that a natural disaster
such as a volcanic eruption dealt it a swift death and caused the egg to be
delicately preserved.

The hapless pterosaur's misfortune is the researchers' good luck. The
specimen, which includes imprints of wing and skin tissue as well as bones
and shell, confirms the long-standing theory that the creatures laid eggs
rather than giving birth to live young.

Read the rest at Nature
http://www.nature.com/nsu/040607/040607-6.html

Comment:
Includes interest illustrations and a photograph

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek.
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