Eating

Question 1

How do palaeontologists figure out a dinosaurs diet?

Answer 1

They compare it’s feeding adaptations with those of modern animals whose diets can be directly observed (comparative biology)

Question 2

Herbivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?

Answer 2

Animals that only eat plants.

Thin, ridged or “leaf-shaped” teeth for shearing and broad, flat teeth for grinding

Question 3

Carnivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?

Answer 3

Animals that only eat meat.

Sharp, pointed teeth for peircing, and sharp hooked claws for holding onto struggling prey

Question 4

Serrations

Answer 4

Small sharp bumps on a tooth that are arranged in a line that usually runs from the tip to the base of the tooth

Question 5

Frugivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?

Answer 5

Branch of herbivour that primarily eats fruit

They have a beak like a parrot (sharp and hooked) for riping and tearing apart the peels and protective husks of large tropical fruit

Question 6

Piscivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?

Answer 6

Branch of carnivore that primarily eats fish

Have tall, sharp, conical teeth that usually lack serrations for spearing and holding fish. They have long jaws capable of snapping shut quickly

Question 7

Insectivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?

Answer 7

Carnivore that primarly eats insects

Has sharp piercing teeth for puncturing the chitinous exoskeletons. Have weak jaws and reduced teeth. They also have large spade-shaped claws and powerful but short limbs

Question 8

Durophagy

Answer 8

Term used to describe the act of crushing bones; requires extermely powerful jaws and strong rounded teeth

Question 9

Omnivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?

Answer 9

Animals that eat a signifigant amount of both meat and plants

Tend to have unspecilized beaks and teeth or a variety of teeth with different shapes

Question 10

Resorption

Answer 10

The chemical process by which a dinosaur breaks down its own teeth and bones so that the minerals and nutrients that compose them can be reused

Question 11

What can a shed tooth near a fosslized dino tell us?

Answer 11

It could have come from the dead dino but if it was a theropod tooth it can tell us that that dinosaur either hunted for the dead dino or it scavenged it (but we dont know which)

Question 12

Cellulose

Answer 12

Tough composision of plant cell wall that makes plants difficult to digest (need the help of commensal bacteria)

Question 13

Dental batteries

Answer 13

Arrangments of densly packed teeth that collectively form a single, large chewing surface

Question 14

What groups of dinos had dental batteries?

Answer 14

Hadrosaurs and ceratopsians

Question 15

How often did dinos with dental batteries replace their teeth?

Answer 15

Very rapidly

Question 16

Enamal

Answer 16

Covers the outside of the tooth

Question 17

Dentine

Answer 17

Found on the inside of the tooth

Question 18

Describe the chewing surfaces of dental batteries. (be broad and then specific for each group of dino)

Answer 18

Not simple, uniform, or smooth but it is intricate, varied, and abrasive.

Hadrosaurs: angled downward but still mostly horazontal because they moved their jaw backwards and forwards and also from side to side

Ceratopsians: almost vertical as they slid together like scissor blades with the opposing lateral sides of the teeth doing most of the grinding

Question 19

Describe the adaptations that ankylosaurs and sauropods for eating.

Answer 19

Has simple teeth that could be used to nip off begitation but could only help break down their food a little. They also had huge ribcages that housed immense digestive organs needed for plant digestion.

Question 20

Describe the adaptations that aviraptorosaurs and ornithomimids for eating.

Answer 20

They lacked teeth but had gastric mills with gastroliths.

Question 21

Gastric mills

Answer 21

muscular pouch in the Gi tract above the stomach that holds gastroliths, used to grind food in animals with no teeth

Question 22

Gastroliths

Answer 22

small masses of little stones that grind food when mucles contract to rub the stones together

Question 23

Dromaesaurs

Answer 23

Theropod with a thin tail supported by special rod-like projections of their caudal vertebrae and chevros. They had serrated blade-like teeth and a large sickle-shaped claw on each hind foot

Ex: velociraptor

Question 24

Spinosaurs

Answer 24

group of theropd with a crocodile like skull. Piscivores, had conical teeth with sharp tips with few to no serrations

Question 25

Alvarezsaurs

Answer 25

Group of theropod with shrot limbs and compact hands. Insectoviore, had reduced teeth and short but strong front limbs which 1 large spade-liked claw on each hand.

Question 26

Tyrannosaurs

Answer 26

Group of theropods that had teeth with serrated edges and well adapted for puncturing and cutting flesh. These teeth had blunt tips and the attachment sites for jaw muscles in the skulls indicate a capacity for tremendous biting force.
Had the most powerful bite of any animal (capable of durophagy)

Question 27

Scavanging

Answer 27

Consumption of an already dead animal by a carnivore that did not play a part in killing

Question 28

What is a good adaptation for a scavenger?

Answer 28

Durophagy (allows the carnivore to access bone nutrients) but theropods that did have this adaption did not always scavange.

Dinos not capable of durophagy rarely scavanged

Question 29

Cololites

Answer 29

Fossil gut contents

Question 30

Coprolites

Answer 30

Fossil poop