Fossilized Teeth Offer Clues to Dinosaurs’ Favorite Foods About 150 Million Years Ago

Dinosaurs may not have dental files, but their fossilized teeth offer fascinating clues in their eating habits. Inspection of chemical signatures stored in enamel, scientists writing Paleography, paleoclimatology, paleoecology found that different species of herbivores had different preferences and were partial for different parts of the plant – a fact that allowed vast and various ecosystems to thrive for millions of years.

“It is really more evidence that this ecosystem was as spectacular as we thought,” said the main author Liam Norris, a graduate of the Jackson School of Geosciences of the University of Texas Jackson School of Texas A press release.

Dinosaur teeth enamel

The dinosaurs subject to this particular dental inspection were found in the career of Tithonian carnegie at the National Monument of Dinosaur, a fossil emporium on the border of UTAH and Colorado. The site offers an intriguing snapshot of life in the Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago, revealing high levels of diversity and a complex ecosystem with several large animals living next to each other.

The researchers carried out an analysis of the calcium isotopes on the dental enamel of three herbivorous dinosaurs, a carnivorous dinosaur and a crocodyliform (Estreranosuchus). It included two Diplodocus (a long neck plant eater), two Campetosaur (a herbivore with a short arm), four Camarasaurus (a long and smaller long and smaller plant plant) and five Allosaurus (a large meat eater).

An advantage of using dental enamel is that it is incredibly rustic. Its higher density and lower porosity mean that it is more likely to remain stable over time compared to other materials, such as bone or dentin. Another reason why teeth are such a precious tool for paleontologists is their calcium content, which retains chemical signatures of foods that have been consumed.

By interpreting these signatures, the team was not only able to determine which plants the dinosaurs ate, but also what parts of these plants, such as bark or leaves, were consumed.

Find out more: T. Rex has dinner on huge plant -eaten dinosaurs – and each other

Dinosaurs’ restoration preferences

The results reveal how so many herbivores have been able to coexist. Not only did they survive by eating different levels of the canopy – with larger dinosaurs eating leaves closer to the summit – but also by eating different parts of the plant in the first place.

The researchers found This campetosaur preferred the softest parts of plants, such as leaves and buds, while Camarasaurus Displayed a penchant for woody plant tissues, regularly niling conifers. THE Diplodocus It seemed to be less difficult, consuming sweet ferns and horse plants as well as harder parts of the plant. This may have been made possible by long necks which allowed them to reach the high plants in the canopy as well as those closer to the ground.

“This differentiation in the diet has meaning with what we see of the morphology of these animals: the different size, the different shape of the muzzle,” said Norris. “Then we bring this geochemical data, which is a very concrete evidence to add to this pot.”

The team also found differences in the diet of the two meat eaten species: the Allosaurus And Estreranosuchus. While the results suggest that the latter dined on a fish regime, the first was probably an opportunistic carnivorous, gorging on the flesh of the dinosaurs eaten plants. Researchers note that the bone did not seem to form an important part Allosaurus’ Diet, leading them to speculate that he specializes in the flesh of tear.

Overall, the results paint a table of a colorful ecosystem containing a wide range of species with additional food preferences. According to the researchers, the researchers allowed them to coexist for millions of years.

Learn more:: Fossils in a 100 million -year -old sauropod suggest that they have not chewed their food

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Rosie McCall is an independent writer living in London. She has covered scientific and health subjects for publications, including Iflscience, Newsweek and Health.