New Study Finds Dinosaurs Ate Rocks, Migrated To Wyoming (2024)

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New Study Finds Dinosaurs Ate Rocks, Migrated To Wyoming? ›

"We figured that once they were ingested, they were carried and eventually deposited out within the Morrison deposition." This means dinosaurs migrated over 600 miles to Wyoming after eating the rocks. Scientists already knew that they migrated, but Malone said this technique is a new way to track that movement.

Similar amounts of gastroliths have been found with Psittacosaurus, Caudipteryx, and the ostrich dinosaurs, so the hypothesis that these dinosaurs used gastroliths to aid their digestion is supported.

Ingestion of silt and gravel by tadpoles of various anuran (frog) species has been observed to improve buoyancy control. Some extinct animals such as sauropod dinosaurs appear to have used stones to grind tough plant matter.

During the Triassic, Wyoming's sea continued its withdrawal. As the sea shrunk away, much of Wyoming was occupied by a coastal plain environment divided by rivers. During the Late Triassic, dinosaurs left behind small footprints in western Wyoming that would later fossilize.

"There are a small number of animals that do ingest rock — for example, birds use gizzard stones to aid digestion," Shipway said. "But Lithoredo abatanica is the only known animal that eats rock through burrowing."

Some animals that do not have suitable teeth for grinding down food ingest small rocks in their stomach to aid with their digestion. The stones to mash up the food, easing the animals' digestion. Among other, crocodiles, seals, sea lions, herbivorous birds, domestic fouls, and ostriches adopt this practice.

For example some dinosaurs, such as Camarasaurus, had a strong jaw and bite which could chomp through tough leaves and branches, while others, such as Diplodocus, had weaker bites and delicate skulls more suited to ferns and soft leaves. This way there was enough food to go around – even for the biggest species.

The instantaneous devastation in the immediate vicinity and the widespread secondary effects of an asteroid impact were considered to be why the dinosaurs died out so suddenly. Asteroids are large, rocky bodies that orbit the Sun. They range from a few to hundreds of metres in diameter.

“Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago—before there were even primates,” Blackwell said. “So, they could never have eaten a human or even a monkey.” Scientists think a giant asteroid killed the dinosaurs.

Studying the scratches and wear patterns on teeth reveals vital information on diet and feeding. Scientists can deduce a dinosaur's diet from the shape of its teeth. Analysis under a microscope may reveal wear marks that give further clues to what the dinosaur ate and how.

Which US state has the most dinosaurs? ›

Wyoming used to be at the bottom of an ocean.

At that time the Earth was so warm it did not have polar ice caps. The center of what we now call North America was much lower and under an inland sea that went from the Gulf Of Mexico to the North Pole.

Among the three dozen mounted dinosaur skeletons is Jimbo the Supersaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs ever mounted in the world at a length of 106 feet. It was found in Douglas, Wyo., 180 miles northwest of Thermopolis.

Some carnivores, called obligate carnivores, depend only on meat for survival. Their bodies cannot digest plants properly. Plants do not provide enough nutrients for obligate carnivores. All cats, from small house cats to huge tigers, are obligate carnivores.

The reasons for stone chewing are not fully understood. It can suggest hunger or restricted access to suitable manipulable material, although sows may chew on stones even when straw and other substrates are provided.

Bugs, beetles, worms, ants, roly polies and many other little creatures all love to live in the cool damp environment under stones and logs.

As indicated by the presence of 30 gastroliths within a juvenile specimen, Tuarangisaurus relied on the use of stones swallowed and stored in their gizzard organs, both to act as ballast and to grind the food in their stomachs.

The digestive system of a sauropod such as this Brachiosaurus was much bigger than that of the carnivores. It needed a large gut to break down the fibres in the plant material it ate. A sauropod would also have had a gizzard, where stomach stones ground up the food before it was passed into the stomach.

Diplodocus couldn't chew

Diplodocus had small, peg-like teeth that were positioned at the front of its mouth. That means it couldn't chew its food, so would've had to swallow any stones that it picked up with each mouthful. Its diet was so rough that diplodocus' teeth were replaced about once a month.

It is now widely accepted that birds evolved from a group of two-legged dinosaurs known as theropods and it therefore might be expected that dinosaurs had a digestive system similar to birds. Indeed, there are several pieces of evidence from fossils supporting just this hypothesis.