[Paleontology • 2025] Direct evidence of trophic interaction between a crocodiliform and a large terrorist bird in the middle Miocene of the sale, Colombia

A crocodile caimanino (Purussaurus neivensis) Take advantage/sneak in a large forushcid bird. in Link, Moreno-Bernal, Degrange, Cooke, … in Salas-Gismondi, 2025. Illustrations by Julian Bayona Becerra.

Abstract

Direct evidence of predation and other trophic relationships provide valuable information about trophic interactions between species in paleo-communities. Data on ecological interactions among existing Apex predators open a unique opportunity to better understand how sympathy Apex predators coexisted or interact with each other in the past. Here, we describe the direct evidence of a predation or elimination event in which we propose the hypothesis that a medium -sized caiman (possibly Purussaurus Neivensis) consumed (either through the elimination or direct predation) a large terrorist bird. The distal part of a left warmth of a Forusrhacid had four wells inflicted in the cortical bone, and without signs of healing, which suggests that it did not survive this trophic event. This registry contributes to our current understanding of the dam consumed by P. Neivensis In the wetlands of the Pbas system of South America and indicates that the large forusrhacids could have had a higher risk of predation than expected above. This study provides evidence of a trophic relationship between the predators of the apex and the complexity of trophic interactions in paleocomunity of vertebrates of the sale in the middle Miocene of northern South America.