News Paleontology

Fossils reveal that pterosaurs puked pellets

Fish scale–filled balls found by two fossils suggests regurgitation was the pterosaurs' final course

images of adult and juvenile pterosaur fossils with arrows pointing to fossilized gastric pellets

Scientists identified a tiny gastric pellet (arrows) alongside each of two fossilized pterosaurs: a juvenile (at left) and an adult (at right).

S. Jiang et al/Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 2022

By Carolyn Gramling

- More than 2 years ago

Picture it: Two hungry pterosaurs, one adult and one juvenile, settle down to dig in to a delicious lunch of fish.