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Palaeontology

An Early Cretaceous pellet

Nature volume 409, pages 998–1000 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

We have discovered a mass of fossil bones from four juvenile birds at Las Hoyas in Cuenca, Spain, which show signs of having been digested. To our knowledge, this rare finding of an Early Cretaceous fossil of an apparently regurgitated pellet provides the first evidence that Mesozoic birds were prey animals.

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Figure 1: Fossil pellet from the Lower Cretaceous of Las Hoyas (Cuenca, Spain).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología, Unidad de Paleontología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    José L. Sanz, Francisco Ortega, Francisco J. Poyato-Ariza & Bernardino P. Pérez-Moreno

  2. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, 90007, California, USA

    Luis M. Chiappe

  3. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid, 28006, Spain

    Yolanda Fernádez-Jalvo & Begoña Sánchez-Chillón

Authors
  1. José L. Sanz
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  2. Luis M. Chiappe
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  3. Yolanda Fernádez-Jalvo
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  4. Francisco Ortega
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  5. Begoña Sánchez-Chillón
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  6. Francisco J. Poyato-Ariza
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  7. Bernardino P. Pérez-Moreno
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Correspondence to José L. Sanz.

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Sanz, J., Chiappe, L., Fernádez-Jalvo, Y. et al. An Early Cretaceous pellet. Nature 409, 998–1000 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35059172

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