2021/04/29 by Christian Klug, Günter Schweigert, René Hoffmann +2 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Cephalopods and Marine Biology #Ichthyology and Marine Biology #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1186/s13358-021-00225-z
openalex publication_date 2021/04/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Abstract Especially in Lagerstätten with exceptionally preserved fossils, we can sometimes recognize fossilized remains of meals of animals. We suggest the term leftover fall for the event and the term pabulite for the fossilized meal when it never entered the digestive tract (difference to regurgitalites). Usually, pabulites are incomplete organismal remains and show traces of the predation. Pabulites have a great potential to inform about predation as well as anatomical detail, which is invisible otherwise. Here, we document a pabulite comprising the belemnite Passaloteuthis laevigata from the Toarcian of the Holzmaden region. Most of its soft parts are missing while the arm crown is one of the best preserved that is known. Its arms embrace an exuvia of a crustacean. We suggest that the belemnite represents the remnant of the food of a predatory fish such as the shark Hybodus .