Dinosaur Highways

A specimen of Calceola sandalina (Linne 1771) from the Givetian of the Czech Republic shows severe injury on its right side when observed from its cardinal side. Approximately one-half of the counter side is missing between the counter septum and the alar corallite angle. The injury is healed within the calice, as visible also on deformed septa close to injury, while the outer flat ventral side shows no signs of healing. The operculum is not preserved but the damage clearly must have affected it. It is difficult to envision how such damage might have occurred by abiotic means in a rather low-energy environment without the influx of grains larger than silt. We consider the injury a result of attack by a predator. When speculating on the animal capable of producing such injury, one must consider preferably a vertebrate with strong jaws: fish-like animals capable of durophagy (placoderms and chondrichthyans) appeared in the Devonian.