A Pterosaur Died 113 Million Years Ago. Its Last Meal Survived.

A pterosaur died in an ancient Brazilian sea 113 million years ago. Bacteria moved in immediately, the way bacteria do. Here's where it gets strange: instead of destroying the evidence, they preserved it, sealing molecules inside the bone that have survived long enough to be read today.

A new study in iScience pulled steroids out of that fossilized wing bone, the first time any molecules have ever been recovered from a pterosaur. Those steroids point to a diet of fish and squid, the first direct read on what these animals actually ate.

The bone survived in three dimensions, cell structure and all, wrapped inside a rock nodule that formed around it as it fossilized. Researchers expected oxygen exposure to have wiped out anything worth reading. Instead, the microbes feeding on the carcass seem to have helped lock the evidence in rather than erase it.

If that holds up elsewhere, one of paleontology's basic assumptions, that oxygen kills the good stuff, may have had it backward the whole time.

The steroids decoded one last meal. The bone decoded the kitchen.

Read the full story at SciéNow, June 19, 2026

Hot Take: CSI: Cretaceous just solved a 113-million-year-old cold case. The victim ate fish and squid. The real surprise is that the forensic team consisted entirely of bacteria.