Mon Jan 27 18:20:00 IST 2025: ## Ancient Croc Attack on Pterosaur Revealed by Fossil
**Alberta, Canada –** Scientists have uncovered evidence of a dramatic prehistoric encounter in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. A fossilized neck bone of a juvenile *Cryodrakon boreas*, a pterosaur with a wingspan of approximately 2 meters, reveals a 4 mm wide puncture wound consistent with a crocodilian bite. The injury, described in this week’s *Journal of Paleontology*, suggests the young pterosaur was either attacked or scavenged by a crocodile-like reptile approximately 76 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.
The *Cryodrakon boreas*, a relative of the similarly massive *Quetzalcoatlus*, was one of the largest flying creatures ever to exist, with adults boasting wingspans of up to 10 meters. The thin, partially complete neck bone, examined using microscopy and micro-CT scans, shows no signs of healing, indicating the injury occurred around the time of death.
Lead author Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology suggests the attack likely occurred at the water’s surface, a likely hunting or drinking ground for both pterosaurs and ambush predator crocodiles. The shape of the puncture wound rules out large theropod dinosaurs as culprits, instead matching the tooth morphology of crocodilians present in the area, such as *Leidyosuchus* or *Albertochampsa*.
This discovery sheds light on the predatory dynamics of the Cretaceous ecosystem and the feeding strategies of pterosaurs, a subject of ongoing debate among researchers. While *Cryodrakon boreas* is believed to have been carnivorous, its precise hunting methods remain a focus of future study.
First Piper 