{"id":3963,"date":"2012-03-12T12:07:47","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T01:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=3963"},"modified":"2012-03-21T11:29:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T00:29:34","slug":"velociraptors-last-meal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/science\/velociraptors-last-meal\/","title":{"rendered":"Velociraptor&#8217;s last meal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3964\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 605px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3964\" title=\"velociraptor_pterosaur\" src=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/velociraptor_pterosaur.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"605\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Velociraptor fossil with the 75 mm long pterosaur bone in the gut (black arrows) and the breaks in the rib cage (white arrow). Credit: David Hone<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Velociraptors didn&#8217;t turn down free food.<!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Scientists have discovered a pterosaur bone inside the remains of a Velociraptor that would have lived in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, approximately 75 million years ago. The 75 mm-long pterosaur bone was lodged in the upper part of the Velociraptor ribcage, where its stomach would have been located.<\/p>\n<p>The findings, published online in <a href=\" http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/journal\/00310182\/319\" target=\"blank\">Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology<\/a>, support the theory that <a href=\" https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/science\/dinosaurs-hunted-at-night\/\" target=\"blank\">Velociraptors<\/a>, which have been described as hyper predators, would also scavenge on available carcasses. While the flying reptile would have been too large to be the Velociraptor&#8217;s intended prey, it could have been scavenged.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It would be difficult and probably even dangerous for the small theropod dinosaur to target a pterosaur with a wingspan of two metres or more, unless the pterosaur was already ill or injured,&#8221;\u009d said co-author Dr David Hone, from the <a href=\" http:\/\/www.ucd.ie\/ \" target=\"blank\">University College Dublin<\/a> in Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So the pterosaur bone we&#8217;ve identified in the gut of the Velociraptor was most likely scavenged from a carcass rather than the result of a predatory kill.&#8221;\u009d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3965\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 375px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3965\" title=\"velociraptor-scavenging-pterosaur\" src=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/velociraptor-scavenging-pterosaur.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"375\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/velociraptor-scavenging-pterosaur.gif 375w, https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/velociraptor-scavenging-pterosaur-281x300.gif 281w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist&#8217;s impression of a Velociraptor scavenging the carcass of a Pterosaur. Credit: Brett Booth<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Velociraptor was also injured; an analysis of the skeleton revealed that it was either carrying or recovering from an injury to its ribs when it died. The well-preserved nature of the bone suggests its death occurred not long after &#8220;the last meal&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The surface of the bone is smooth and in good condition, with no unusual traces of marks or deformation that could be attributed to digestive acids,&#8221;\u009d Hone said. &#8220;So it&#8217;s likely that the Velociraptor itself died not long after ingesting the bone.&#8221;\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The size of the bone also indicates that small non-avian dinosaurs were capable of consuming relatively large bones, something observed in modern crocodiles.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\" http:\/\/www.ucd.ie\/news\/2012\/03MAR12\/080312-Preserved-bone-of-Pterosaur-in--stomach-of-Velociraptor.html\" target=\"blank\">University College Dublin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Velociraptors didn&#8217;t turn down free food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,36,49,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dinosaurs","category-news","category-palaeontology","category-science"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3963"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3971,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}