Lab 6 - Owl Pellets and Dinosaur Footprints

Question 1

What is a pellet?

Answer 1

The regurgitated remnants of the owl’s prey.

Question 2

What is an owl’s lifestyle?

Answer 2

Nocturnal hunters that eat small rodents and birds. They are stealth hunters who capture their prey and swallow it whole.

Question 3

How is an owl’s digestive system distinct?

Answer 3

It is similar to other birds but they have no distinct crop. Their prey is processed int he muscular gizzard and indigestible material (bones, hair, etc.) is compacted in the gizzard and them moved back into the proventriculus where it may be stored for up to 10 hours before it is then regurgitated.

Question 4

What materials are undigestible for owls?

Answer 4

Bones, hair, etc.

Question 5

What is ichnology?

Answer 5

A branch of palaeontology which is the study of trace fossils such as dinosaur footprints and trackways

Question 6

What information does ichnology tell us?

Answer 6

It gives us information about the locomotion of dinosaurs, their anatomy, and even predatory behaviours.