Examinated excavation scientists at Leicester University of Leicester fossilized skeletons The old creeping Individuals with broken wings of limestone Solnhofen in southern Germany. The results they reached show how these creatures were tragicly injured by the strong Jurassic storms that created the ideal conditions for preserving them and hundreds of fossils like them.
An artist’s impression of a young man The old creeping Hatling is struggling against a raging tropical storm, inspired by fossil discoveries. Credit image: Rudolph Hema.
“The late Jurassic limestone deposits in Bavaria, in southern Germany, dating back 153-148 million years, are famous for its wonderfully preserved fossils, including many samples of Petrosrat and flying reptiles for Mysozoyk.”
“However, there is a mystery here: While Solnhofen has resulted in hundreds of boats fossils, almost all of them are young individuals, and they are completely preserved.”
“In contrast, the adult motor boomers are rarely found, and when they are, they are only represented by shrapnel (often skulls or isolated ends).”
“This pattern contrasts with expectations: the largest and most powerful animals should be placed on a better chance of fossilizing sensitive events.”
In the new study, the authors analyzed the engraved skeletons of two mature petroshores from the Solnhofen limestone.
The two people belong to The old creepingA type of fetrosor who lived in what is now known as Germany during the Kemereridigian era in the late Jurassic era.
With wings less than 20 cm (8 inches), these bubbles are among the smallest known creeping boundaries.
Both show the same unusual injury: a clean, inclined fracture.
Examples of newborns from The old creeping From the limestone Solnhofen, Germany. Domain tapes – 20 mm. Credit image: Smith And others. DOI: 10.1016/J.Cub.2025.08.006.
The left wing of one individual and the right wing of another is broken in a way that indicates a strong twisted force, and is likely to be the result of a strong wind standing instead of colliding with a solid surface.
With catastrophic wounds, crawls drowned on the surface of the lake, drowning in the waves driven by the storm and drowning quickly to the sea floor, where it was buried quickly by the very soft clay that was raised by death storms.
This quick burial allowed the wonderful memorization seen in their excavations.
Like two boats included in the study, which was only a few days or weeks old when they died, there are many very small millions of Solnhofen limestone in the same way, but without clear evidence of structural shock.
Unable to resist the power of storms, and these young storms were closed in the lake.
This discovery explains the reason for maintaining smaller fossils – was a direct result of storms – a common cause of death for the business mills that lived in the region.
Dr. Smith said: “For centuries, scientists have believed that the Solnhofen Lagoon was controlled by the small boat.”
“But we now know that this opinion is very biased. Many of these indigenous native crawls in the lake were not at all.”
“Most of them are the inexperienced events that were likely to live in nearby islands, unfortunately, in strong storms.”
A paper About the results were published today in the magazine Current biology.
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Robert Schmith And others. Detective incidents in newborns and selective samples in the Solnhofen fossil assembly. Current biologyIt was published on the Internet on September 5, 2025; Doi: 10.1016/J.Cub.2025.08.006