Pterosaurs as a food source for small dromaeosaurs

Stomach contents preserved in fossil specimens provide direct evidence for the diet of extinct animals. Such exceptional fossils remain rare for predatory non-avian dinosaurs and each can add significantly to our understanding of trophic interactions between various taxa. Here we present evidence for the dromaeosaurid theropod Velociraptor scavenging on the carcass of an azhdarchid pterosaur, with a long bone of the pterosaur being found as gut contents of the dinosaur. Despite previous inferences of dromaeosaurs as hyper-predators, scavenging appears to have been an important part of their ecology.

► The first theropod dinosaur with a pterosaur bone preserved as gut contents.
► This supports previous interpretations of Velociraptor as scavenging.
► Pterosaurs were perhaps regularly part of the diet of carnivorous dinosaurs.