How a bird managed to escape a predatory sea monster

In the mid 1960s, scientistss investigating rustic South Dakota uncovered the fossilized leg bone of a Hesperornis: a substantial amphibian winged animal rather like a penguin, which lived amid the dinosaur time.

At first look the fossil looked unremarkable. It assumed control a large portion of a century for researchers to perceive the bone's actual noteworthiness.

This Hesperornis had survived a keep running in with a plesiosaur: a marine reptile bigger than an individual. It is just the second fossil found to date that hints at being assaulted by a plesiosaur.

Hesperornis looked like a modern penguin (Credit: Stocktrek Images Inc/Alamy Stock Photo)

Hesperornis spent much of its life at sea (Credit: Corey Ford/Alamy Stock Photo)

A fossilised Hesperornis skeleton (Credit: Vince Smith, CC by 2.0)

A fossilised Dolichorhynchops skeleton (Credit: the paleobear, CC by 2.0)