Re: When pterosaurs ate dragonflies

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

Er, um, dragonfly wings get brittle after death, IIRC ... could have a foot, or 
falling branch, not a mouth, that caused the damage. Also, one is forced to 
wonder why it wasn't eaten; I doubt if it could fly well, or at all, missing 
that much of the back wing on just one side. But what a beaut of a fossil ...

Don

----- Original Message ----
From: Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:10:45 AM
Subject: RE: When pterosaurs ate dragonflies



Mark Witton wrote:

> I've been meaning to get around to doing this for a while: does
 anyone
> out there know anything about the Solnhofen dragonfly that's
 alledgedly
> had a bite taken out of its wings by a pterosaur? Ultra-keen fans of
> fossilised pterosaur trophic interactions can find a picture at:
>
> http://www.pterosaurier.de/libelle_mit_pterosaurierbiss_01_o.jpg


Why couldn't the dragonfly have been bitten by an _Archaeopteryx_?  Or
 even a leaping non-avian theropod?

Looks like a job for "CSI: Solnhofen".

Cheers

Tim
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