New research shows that some herbivorous dinosaurs were pickier about what they ate than scientists thought before. Instead of only eating depending on height, they preferred certain textures and minerals. Paleontologist Liam Norris and his team at the Texas Science & Natural History Museum studied dinosaur teeth that were 150 million years old to find out what they liked to eat.
How Dinosaurs Picked Their Food
For a long time, scientists thought that dinosaurs that ate plants, like Camarasaurus, mostly ate what they could reach, including leaves from trees for tall species and plants that grew low for shorter ones. However, the most recent research shows a more complicated picture. Researchers used chemical analysis of calcium isotopes in ancient teeth to find that many herbivores had unique preferences. Some ate softer leaves, while others ate tougher twigs or woody plants, no matter how tall they were.
These findings show that dinosaurs changed their meals based on what was available in their environment, which shows that their behavior was more complicated than we thought.
Using calcium isotopes to figure out what dinosaurs ate
Isotope analysis also helped us learn more about carnivorous dinosaurs and other ancient animals. For example:
Eutretauranosuchus, an old reptile, probably ate fish.
Allosaurus, a big predator, liked to eat dinosaur meat but not bones.
This technique enabled investigators to recreate diets in manners unattainable from skeletal evidence alone.
What Experts Say
Paleontologists have complimented the work for its new way of looking at things. Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum in London talked about how isotopic analysis can help us question what we thought we knew. Michael Benton, another well-known paleontologist, said that chemical traces of diet can last for millions of years and help us learn about the complicated behaviors of extinct species.
Benton remarked, “This study shows that even plant-eating dinosaurs had favorite foods and didn’t just eat anything.”