Synthetic image of pterosaur, these flying reptiles of the Jurassic. - Efraimstochter - PixaBay

  • Near Cahors, the Pterosaur Beach keeps etched in its limestone the traces of animals that passed 150 million years ago.
  • Two paleontologists have just raised the mystery of the locomotion of the famous flying reptiles.
  • The pterosaurs were not so unbalanced.

They have cute nicknames - "Dimitri", "Lili", or "Mimi" - and until recently were one of the most enigmatic creatures in paleontology. The pterosaurs, these flying Jurassic reptiles, with their wings stretched out with skin, their five-fingered feet, and their many sharp teeth, have left traces in the form of fossils and skeletons.

But in the Lot, at Crayssac, a magical place aptly called "the Pterosaur Beach", their imprint is much more edifying. “150 million years ago, it was a mud beach where pterosaurs but also dinosaurs, crocodilians, turtles walked. They left their traces, which we find today engraved in the soil that has become limestone, "explains Jean-Michel Mazin, paleontologist retired from the CNRS, who has been excavating this site located near Cahros for 25 years with the PaleoAquitania association.

The trail to the Holy Grail

And among the many "tracks" (steps that we can follow), those, enigmatic, of an "archaic" pterosaur, with large wings and not really profiled, which has been debated for two centuries. "We wondered if he was walking, and if so, on two or four legs, others imagined that he was not landing," explains Jean-Michel Mazin.

What I disliked - PaleoAquitania

So for two years, with his paleontologist colleague Joane Pouech, he has been following the famous track of this "bird" no bigger than a rat and presumed to be clumsy. The researchers measured, extrapolated, modeled, and milled. And at the beginning of February, in a publication in the international scientific journal Geobios, they delivered their verdict on "the last group of vertebrate animals that kept its mystery": "This line of pterosaurs walked on all fours, and rather well, ”says Jean-Michel Mazin.

The announcement, "well received", caused a stir in the world of paleontology. "A colleague even talked about the Holy Grail," says the specialist, delighted to return to his beach to now tackle other mysteries.

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  • Cahors
  • Tourism
  • Prehistory
  • Paleontology
  • science