2023-11-24 07:00:03
In the Jurassic rocks of the United States, recent research sheds new light on the eating habits of ancestral carnivorous dinosaurs. Roberto Lei, of UNIMORE University in Italy (Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia), and his team published in PeerJ a study examining the bite marks left on the bones of gigantic sauropods, such as Diplodocus (The Diplodocus (“Double beam”, in modern Greek) is a genus of dinosaur…) and Brontosaurus, by carnivorous theropod dinosaurs.
Morrison Formation theropods and their dental crowns.
Credit: PeerJ (2023)
These tooth-marked bones offer valuable insights into the feeding behaviors of long-extinct carnivorous creatures. The study highlights the contribution of other large carnivores, while it was previously thought that giant tyrannosaurs were primarily responsible for these markings.
The team examined the literature and fossil collections in detail, revealing a striking discovery: 68 Late Jurassic (about 150 million years old) sauropod bones from the Morrison Formation in the United States bear bite marks that are unquestionably attributed to to theropods.
These results suggest that, although less common than in environments dominated by tyrannosaurs, bite marks on large sauropods are nonetheless abundant in the Morrison Formation. A particularly intriguing aspect of their discovery is that none of the marks observed show signs of healing, indicating that these bites occurred during a single, fatal encounter or, more likely, were traces of post-mortem feeding. from scavengers.
(A) Tip of the neural spine of the dorsal vertebra of Apatosaurus sp. (AMNH FARB 550) showing (B) significant bite marks (dorsolateral view). This region was unlikely to be the site of a predatory attack.
Credit: PeerJ (2023)
The team also examined tooth wear in theropods from the Morrison Formation, finding that they also show wear associated with bone biting, more often than previously thought, and are similar to patterns seen in the large tyrannosaurs. However, assigning bite marks to specific theropod taxa remains a complex challenge due to the presence of several credible candidates. Dr. David Hone of Queen Mary University of London (London – /?l?nd? n/) is the capital as well as the largest city…), lead author of the study, comments: “This new work helps us understand the ecological relationships between Jurassic dinosaurs and reveals that the habits of the largest “The carnivores of the time were closer to those of tyrannosaurs than we previously thought. This is an important step in reconstructing the behavior of these ancient animals.”
This research not only enriches our understanding of ancient ecosystems and dynamics between predators and prey, but also raises intriguing questions about the complex web of life in the late Jurassic period. By focusing on bite and tooth marks, the authors have opened a new window of investigation and knowledge, where these findings tell a story of predators and their interactions with some of the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth (Earth is the third planet in the Solar System by distance…).
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