IF YOU鈥橰E flying, it鈥檚 normally best to travel light, but one prehistoric flying reptile didn鈥檛 get the memo. It took to the skies with a cargo of gravel in its guts.
The gravel-muncher in question is Pterodaustro guinazui, and it lived towards the end of the dinosaur era. While examining a new fossil of the species, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and colleagues discovered that its abdomen contained 29 stones (see photo), ranging from 1.5 to 8.4 millimetres across ().
P. guinazui is known as the reptilian version of the flamingo because its unusually long skull gave it a beak-like snout. It is also thought to have used its hundreds of long, thin teeth to filter morsels out of shallow water.
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Chiappe says the pterosaurs may have used the stones to help grind up the tiny crustaceans it ate. Again, this strategy is commonly seen in filter-feeding birds like flamingos.
鈥淭his is a really special pterosaur,鈥� says of the Natural History Museum in London. Most species ate fish or insects, using sharp teeth to rip them apart, and would not have needed stomach stones. 鈥淭his is probably unique to the filter-feeding pterosaurs.鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淧rehistoric flier had gravelly guts鈥�
