“Mom, I’m vegan now!” It was probably the same with dinosaurs – only over many generations. In any case, the ancestors of some herbivorous dinosaurs, such as the long-necked Diplodocus, were carnivores. This is reported by a team of paleontologists led by Antonio Ballell from the University of Bristol in the magazine Science Advances.
The researchers wanted to determine the feeding habits of dinosaurs. To do this, they used a computer-assisted 3D model to compare the shape and function of the teeth of eleven dinosaurs from the Upper Triassic period, around 230 million years ago, with those of 47 living reptiles. They found out that carnivores, such as crocodiles, have relatively weak teeth compared to herbivorous reptiles. This is probably because plants are harder to chew than soft vertebrate meat. The teeth of carnivorous dinosaurs were sharp and pointed; According to the scientists, such teeth are good for tearing through flesh. The teeth of herbivores, on the other hand, tended to be blunt and bumpy, allowing them to break through plant tissue; they resembled the teeth of iguanas, for example.
Being able to adjust their diet was a key to the dinosaurs’ success
“Our analyzes show that the ornithosaurs started out as omnivores – the group that includes many herbivorous species such as the horned horned dinosaurs, the armored ankylosaurs and the duckbilled dinosaurs,” says Emily Rayfield, co-author of the study, in a statement from the university. “Another interesting finding is that the ancestors of plant-based long-necked dinosaurs like Diplodocus were carnivores.”
The first dinosaurs lived 235 million years ago. Then, 201 million years ago, the fifth largest known mass extinction in history occurred. This is known as the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Something must have happened as early as the Triassic period that allowed dinosaurs to survive and adapt to the mass extinction. “It seems that one of the things that made the first dinosaurs special was that they evolved different diets during the Triassic,” says Antonio Ballell, according to the university. “We believe this may have been key to their evolutionary and ecological success.”