Eating Flashcards
How do palaeontologists figure out a dinosaurs diet?
They compare it’s feeding adaptations with those of modern animals whose diets can be directly observed (comparative biology)
Herbivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?
Animals that only eat plants.
Thin, ridged or “leaf-shaped” teeth for shearing and broad, flat teeth for grinding
Carnivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?
Animals that only eat meat.
Sharp, pointed teeth for peircing, and sharp hooked claws for holding onto struggling prey
Serrations
Small sharp bumps on a tooth that are arranged in a line that usually runs from the tip to the base of the tooth
Frugivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?
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
Piscivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?
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
Insectivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?
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
Durophagy
Term used to describe the act of crushing bones; requires extermely powerful jaws and strong rounded teeth
Omnivores definition and what adaptations do they typically have?
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
Resorption
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
What can a shed tooth near a fosslized dino tell us?
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)
Cellulose
Tough composision of plant cell wall that makes plants difficult to digest (need the help of commensal bacteria)
Dental batteries
Arrangments of densly packed teeth that collectively form a single, large chewing surface
What groups of dinos had dental batteries?
Hadrosaurs and ceratopsians
How often did dinos with dental batteries replace their teeth?
Very rapidly
Enamal
Covers the outside of the tooth
Dentine
Found on the inside of the tooth
Describe the chewing surfaces of dental batteries. (be broad and then specific for each group of dino)
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
Describe the adaptations that ankylosaurs and sauropods for eating.
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.
Describe the adaptations that aviraptorosaurs and ornithomimids for eating.
They lacked teeth but had gastric mills with gastroliths.
Gastric mills
muscular pouch in the Gi tract above the stomach that holds gastroliths, used to grind food in animals with no teeth
Gastroliths
small masses of little stones that grind food when mucles contract to rub the stones together
Dromaesaurs
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
Spinosaurs
group of theropd with a crocodile like skull. Piscivores, had conical teeth with sharp tips with few to no serrations
Alvarezsaurs
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.
Tyrannosaurs
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)
Scavanging
Consumption of an already dead animal by a carnivore that did not play a part in killing
What is a good adaptation for a scavenger?
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
Cololites
Fossil gut contents
Coprolites
Fossil poop
