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Re: Spinosaurs ate pterosaurs



Tim Donovan wrote:

Was the specimen found in a region where spinosaurs
were already known to exist e.g. Africa, or elsewhere?

Yes. The specimen was found in the Santana Formation of Brazil, where two spinosaurid taxa, _Irritator challengeri_ and _Angaturama limai_ were recovered. (The article also says that it is now "generally agreed" that _A. limai_ is a junior synonym of _I. challengeri_). The tooth embedded in the pterosaur (ornithocheirid) cervical is "similar in every respect to the spinosaurid teeth previously described from the Santana Formation".


The article also notes a previous occurrence of predation by theropods on pterosaurs: a broken troodontid tooth embedded in an azhdarchid tibia from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta (Currie and Jacobsen, 1995; Can. J. Earth Sci. 32: 922?925). (As I recall, this tooth was provisionally referred to _Saurornitholestes_).

In both cases, we don't know whether the pterosaur was attacked by the theropod (either on the ground or in mid-air) or the theropod was scavenging the carcass. The authors favor the latter explanation, and regard a capture of a live pterosaur by a spinosaur as "unlikely". I'm not sure this holds for troodontids, though. If small maniraptorans are thought to have leaped into the air against flying insects on the way to evolving flight, why not pterosaurs too?




Tim

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