Traces of a trauma 245 million years ago

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Researchers gain insight into life in an ancient sea

An injured nothosaur - of seal size hunting fish. The figure shows a pronounced
An injured nothosaur - of seal size hunting fish. The figure shows a pronounced thickening on the lower jaw, which is a healed fracture of the bone. © Illustration: Jakub Zalewski .
With a broken jaw on the prowl - that seems almost impossible. But researchers have discovered an approximately 245-million-year-old nothosaur fossil on which the injury had healed. The international team, with participation from the University of Bonn, examined other marine reptile bone anomalies from a site near the town of Winterswijk in the Netherlands. The results are published in the Journal of Morphology.

In the early Middle Triassic, this part of Europe was covered by a shallow and warm sea, rich in organic life and inhabited by various marine reptiles. Today, fossilized bones of these marine reptiles can be found in large numbers. ...
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