The discovery of North America’s oldest known pterosaur has sent shockwaves through the scientific community. A team of researchers led by paleontologist Ben Kligman has unearthed the fossilized jawbone of a new species, Eotephradactylus mcintireae, in the remote Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The find dates back to the late Triassic period, around 209 million years ago, and sheds light on a dynamic ecosystem where diverse groups of animals coexisted.

The Owl Rock Member, a geologic outcrop rich in volcanic ash, has allowed researchers to date the site to around 209 million years old. This makes it one of the park’s youngest rocks and provides a unique window into the Triassic period. The exposures of the Owl Rock Member are found in very remote areas, making them less studied than other geological members in the park.

The team discovered over 1,200 individual fossils, including bones, teeth, fish scales, and coprolites (fossilized poop). This assemblage contains 16 different groups of vertebrate animals that once inhabited a diverse ecosystem. The region’s braided rivers were filled with fish, like freshwater sharks and coelacanths, as well as ancient amphibians, some of which grew up to 6 feet long.

The surrounding environment was home to fearsome reptiles that evolved earlier in the Triassic, including armored herbivores and toothy predators that resembled giant crocodiles. Living alongside these strange creatures were a variety of more familiar critters, including relatives of tuataras and early frogs.

One of the most significant finds is the fossils of an ancient turtle with spike-like armor and a shell that could fit inside a shoebox. This tortoise-like animal lived around the same time as the oldest known turtle, whose fossils were previously uncovered in Germany.

The team also discovered a new species of pterosaur, which would have been small enough to comfortably perch on a person’s shoulder. The tooth-studded jaw revealed crucial clues about how the earliest pterosaurs lived. Because the tips of the teeth were worn down, the team concluded that the pterosaur likely fed on the site’s fish, many of which were encased in armor-like scales.

The bonebed is the latest research collaboration between the National Museum of Natural History and Petrified Forest National Park. Smithsonian scientists have collected petrified wood, fossils, and archaeological objects from the region since the turn of the 20th century.

This remarkable discovery has shed new light on the Triassic period and highlights the importance of continued exploration and research in our understanding of ancient ecosystems. The find also underscores the significance of preserving and protecting our natural heritage for future generations.

The 10,000-mile march through fire that made dinosaurs possible is a remarkable story of survival and evolution. New research suggests that the forerunners of dinosaurs and crocodiles in the Triassic period were able to migrate across areas deemed completely inhospitable to life, paving the way for the rise of these iconic creatures.

A team of researchers from the University of Birmingham and University of Bristol has used a new method of geographical analysis to infer how these ancestral reptiles, known as archosauromorphs, dispersed following one of the most impactful climate events in Earth’s history – the end-Permian mass extinction. This event saw more than half of land-based animals and 81% of marine life die.

The first archosauromorphs were previously believed to only survive in certain parts of the globe due to extreme heat across the tropics, viewed by many paleontologists as a dead zone. However, by developing a new modelling technique based on landscape reconstructions and evolutionary trees, the team has discovered clues about how these reptiles moved around the world during the Triassic period.

The archosauromorphs that survived the extinction event rose to prominence in Earth’s ecosystems in the Triassic, leading to the evolution of dinosaurs. The team now suggests that their later success was in part due to their ability to migrate up to 10,000 miles across the tropical dead zone to access new ecosystems.

Dr Joseph Flannery-Sutherland from the University of Birmingham and corresponding author of the study said: “Amid the worst climatic event in Earth’s history, where more species died than at any period since, life still survived. We know that archosauromorphs as a group managed to come out of this event and over the Triassic period became one of the main players in shaping life thereafter.”

The researchers’ findings have significant implications for our understanding of how life on Earth evolved and adapted to changing environments. As Professor Michael Benton from the University of Bristol, senior author of the study, notes: “The evolution of life has been controlled at times by the environment, but it is difficult to integrate our limited and uncertain knowledge about the ancient landscape with our limited and uncertain knowledge about the ecology of extinct organisms.”

By combining fossils with reconstructed maps of the ancient world in the context of evolutionary trees, the researchers have provided a way of overcoming these challenges. Their work offers a new perspective on the remarkable story of how dinosaurs evolved to thrive in a world previously thought to be inhospitable to life.

Unveiling the Dinosaur’s Menu: A Fossilized Time Capsule Reveals the Sauropod’s Diet 100 Million Years Ago

A groundbreaking study published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology has shed light on the diet of one of the most fascinating creatures to have ever walked the Earth – the sauropod dinosaur. The research, led by Stephen Poropat of Curtin University, reveals that these gentle giants were herbivores and had a unique digestive system that relied heavily on gut microbes for digestion.

The study’s findings are based on an extraordinary discovery made in 2017 at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History. During an excavation of a sauropod skeleton from the mid-Cretaceous period, researchers stumbled upon a well-preserved cololite – a fossilized rock layer containing the dinosaur’s gut contents.

The analysis of the plant fossils within the cololite has confirmed several long-standing hypotheses about the sauropod diet. The research team found that these dinosaurs likely engaged in minimal oral processing of their food and instead relied on fermentation and their gut microbiota for digestion.

The variety of plants present in the cololite suggests that sauropods were indiscriminate bulk feeders, eating a range of foliage from conifers to leaves from flowering plants. This is supported by the presence of chemical biomarkers from both angiosperms and gymnosperms, indicating that at least some sauropods were not selective feeders.

The researchers’ findings have significant implications for our understanding of these massive herbivores and their role in ancient ecosystems. The study suggests that sauropods had successfully adapted to eat flowering plants within 40 million years of the first evidence of their presence in the fossil record.

In addition, the research team found evidence of small shoots, bracts, and seed pods in the cololite, implying that subadult Diamantinasaurus targeted new growth portions of conifers and seed ferns. This strategy of indiscriminate bulk feeding seems to have served sauropods well for 130 million years and might have enabled their success and longevity as a clade.

While this research has shed new light on the diet of sauropod dinosaurs, there are still limitations to consider. The study’s primary limitation is that the sauropod gut contents described constitute a single data point, which may not be representative of typical or adult sauropods’ diets.

This research was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council and has significant implications for our understanding of these fascinating creatures and their role in ancient ecosystems.