Tri-species predator showdown frozen in 100-million-year-old Queensland fossils

A fossil site in north-west Queensland has yielded an unprecedented three-species predation snapshot from the Cretaceous Eromanga Sea. The assemblage consists of a six-to-seven-metre ichthyosaur, nicknamed “BOB,” whose mid-section is riddled with more than thirty bite marks and whose stomach contained pterosaur bones, indicating it had captured a flying reptile. Subsequent analysis by associate researcher Matt White and curator Kevin Petersen attributes the extensive damage to a giant pliosaur, a kronosaurus up to 14 metres long, described as the oceanic equivalent of a T-rex.

The discovery, first spotted by travelers Mick and Cathy Freeman in 2019 and later detailed in Gondwana Research, represents one of the few documented three-tier predator interactions and is hailed by visiting paleontologist Dean Lomax as a world-first. The site provides rare direct evidence of marine predator behaviour and is poised to attract researchers worldwide.