Lecture 9 Part 2 Flashcards
Were the therapoda good chewers? Why or why not?
They are probably bad chewers:
* Teeth spaced out or no teeth at all
* Tooth row not inset
* Wide gape
* Pointy, serrated teeth (steak knives)
* Dominant tooth function: tearing
* Slim torsos
-Jaw joint was at the same level as the tooth row, so jaw works like scissors
Did theropods hold on to their prey?
Some may have if the energy required for holding on was not that much of a risk (prey was small), if big prey they probably did slashing bite- bite and release, waiting for the animal to bleed out.
Were sauropodomorphs good chewers? What make syou think they might be?
Bad chewers because even though jaw joint is below the tooth row the teeth are spaced out, tooth row is not inset, Leaf, spatula and peg-shaped teeth with few
grinding surfaces, Dominant tooth function: puncturing vegetation, Barrel-shaped guts for fermentation, gastroliths
Were ornithischians good chewers?
yes, had three features:
1. The cropping section (mammals have blade incisors to bite off chunks of food)
2. The diastema (a ~toothless gap for food manipulation by the tongue)
3. The cheek teeth (called molars in mammals, a place for grinding down food into a paste)
How was cropping done in the ornithiscia? ON TEST
is done with a beak called the rhampotheca, is made of keratin
What ornithiscians were really good chewers?
duckbill dinosaurs
Is it rare for behaviours to be recorded in the fossil record?
yes
How are coprolites evidence of what dinosaurs ate?
If they were full of bones of other dinos we can say it came from t.rex because it was the only meat eater that lived there at the time, or if they had plants and crustaceans can identify a omnivore
What is a cololite? What does it tell us about an ornithiscia?
Are gut contents, the gut content of isaberrysaura had many different seeds which then facilitated germination of the seeds (pooped them out in other places)
What is some indirect evidence of what dinos ate?
- Assemble all of the known fossils from an area. The carnivores likely ate
the herbivores, the herbivores likely ate the plants. - Look for teeth marks on bones.
- Do more comparative anatomy…
What adaptations do crocodiles have to eat fish?
elongate narrow snout (allowed them to whip their head to the side to catch fish underwater with minimal resistance), conical interlocking teeth (help to trap slippery prey)
What adaptation do other fish eaters have?
Many other piscivores may have procumbent (forward-tilting) teeth to spear fish.
Piscivorous birds often either have sharp, pointed beaks to spear fish, or large lower jaws to scoop them out of the water.
What adaptations do koala have to eat plants?
Chisel-shaped incisors at front of
mouth- used for grasping leaves
Gap (diastema) between incisors
and cheek teeth- allows food to be stored and manipulated
Large cheek teeth (molars) with
broad grinding surfaces- to shred plants
jaw joints- higher than the tooth row to minimize shear- allows side to side motion
animals with cheeks have what tooth rows?
inset tooth rows
What adaptations do anteaters have?
No teeth
Narrow, elongate jaw
Long tongue with hooks
- allows anteater to collect as many ants as possible on it’s tongue, allows the tongue to flick in and out efficiently
