The fossil was discovered accidentally in a Bavarian quarry.
while they waded through the water. It would use its spoon-shaped beak to funnel the water and then its teeth to squeeze out excess liquid, leaving prey trapped in its mouth.The animal likely dabbled as it waded through shallow lagoons, sucking in tiny water shrimps and copepods and then filtering them out through its teeth just like ducks and flamingos.
"What's even more remarkable is some of the teeth have a hook on the end, which we've never seen before in a pterosaur ever. These small hooks would have been used to catch the tiny shrimp the pterosaur likely fed on – making sure they went down its throat and weren't squeezed between the teeth," said Professor Martill.
The name "Balaenognathus" roughly translates to whale mouth because of its filtering feeding style, while the specific name "maeuseri" is in honor of co-author Matthias Mauser, who died during the writing of the paper.of the Balaenognathus maeuseri were accidentally discovered in a Bavarian quarry while scientists were excavating a large block of limestone containing crocodile bones.
Since the first pterosaur was discovered in Bavarian limestone in the 18th century, hundreds of remains of the flying reptiles have been unearthed, making the quarries of the Franconian Jura one of the richest pterosaur localities in the world.
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