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Pterosaur fossils from the Cretaceous of Chile: evidence for a pterosaur colony on an inland desert plain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

C. M. Bell  and
K. Padian
C. M. Bell
Affiliation:
Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, Cheltenham, GL50 2QF, UK
K. Padian
Affiliation:
Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
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Abstract

A 2-m-thick bed of sandstone and conglomerate in early Cretaceous desert sediments in the Andes of northern Chile contains thousands of scattered pterosaur bones. The bed displays sedimentary features which suggest that it was the product of a single major flood event. It seems possible that a large pterosaur colony was overwhelmed by the waters of an exceptional flood sweeping across a flat alluvial plain.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 132 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 31 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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