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Palaeontology

Predatory dinosaurs became vegetarians

By T.K. Randall
January 17, 2011 · Comment icon 32 comments

Image Credit: CC 3.0 Krugerr
New research suggests two-legged predatory dinosaurs would have ended up only eating plants.
Up until now carnivorous theropod dinosaurs were thought to have eaten meat all the way up to their extinction but scientists at Chicago's Field Museum have found evidence that they developed toothless beaks and turned to eating vegetation. "Somewhere on the line to birds predatory dinosaurs went soft," said Dr Lindsay Zanno.
Forget Jurassic Park. Most aggressive two-legged dinosaurs became peaceable vegan, according to new research. Scientists at Chicago's Field Museum studied the diet of 90 species of theropods – colloquially called "predatory dinosaurs", which in many cases became the ancestors of modern birds – examining the teeth, fossilised dung (the mind boggles) and stones in the stomach that had been used to grind vegetation.


Source: Telegraph | Comments (32)




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Comment icon #23 Posted by BaneSilvermoon 13 years ago
yes i understand the concept. but tell me what was the common ancester of fish and frogs. since according to science fish were around for millions of years before some animal stepped onto land giving rise to the frog. Hmm, I missed this. Not that I see much point, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiktaalik Oh look..... a fish with gills, and lungs, as well as a mobile neck, fins that look like an odd hybrid of foot bones and a bone that makes a perfect transition piece between a mammalian inner ear bone and a bone fish have that plays a role in their swim bladder. And we have fish today that c... [More]
Comment icon #24 Posted by Farmerboy 13 years ago
Hmm, I missed this. Not that I see much point, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiktaalikOh look..... a fish with gills, and lungs, as well as a mobile neck, fins that look like an odd hybrid of foot bones and a bone that makes a perfect transition piece between a mammalian inner ear bone and a bone fish have that plays a role in their swim bladder.And we have fish today that can breathe air while above water. It doesn't take a huge change for that to be something they could do all the time. Killifish? Or how about the Climbing Perch which can suffocate if it can't gulp air from above the wate... [More]
Comment icon #25 Posted by Realm 13 years ago
Send him back in time, and tell him to walk up to a T-Rex with a box of potatoes in his hand, and lets watch what happens.
Comment icon #26 Posted by Farmerboy 13 years ago
Send him back in time, and tell him to walk up to a T-Rex with a box of potatoes in his hand, and lets watch what happens. I think you'll find that the prehistoric ancestor to the irish will swing down and save the potatoes from the foul beast
Comment icon #27 Posted by SKPandAVP 13 years ago
I have a stone that was in a dinosaur tummy. I used to be obsessed with dinosaurs and some how my grandmother got it for me. She also had a necklace with amber in it that had dead dinosaur bugs in it. Kind of like that cane on jurrasic park. lol. I cherished that stone. I wonder where it is now...
Comment icon #28 Posted by danielost 13 years ago
Hmm, I missed this. Not that I see much point, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiktaalik Oh look..... a fish with gills, and lungs, as well as a mobile neck, fins that look like an odd hybrid of foot bones and a bone that makes a perfect transition piece between a mammalian inner ear bone and a bone fish have that plays a role in their swim bladder. And we have fish today that can breathe air while above water. It doesn't take a huge change for that to be something they could do all the time. Killifish? Or how about the Climbing Perch which can suffocate if it can't gulp air from above the wa... [More]
Comment icon #29 Posted by Realm 13 years ago
Dinosaurs were peace loving vegans who enjoyed long walks on the beach and protracted conversations on philosophy and cave art. Pretty much all wild speculation. And why do these articles never link to the subjects research? I would like to see these documents and what this Dr's findings were, in his own words. LOL
Comment icon #30 Posted by Farmerboy 13 years ago
funny this transitional fish goes on to become a frog but it has mammalian ear bones. which develop from reptiles million of years later. He didnt say it had a mammalian earbone, just the bones which would evolve to become the earbones, the jaw of is derrived from what was the first gillarch. The mammalian earbone is derived from bones from the reptilian jaw. It's why mammals only have one bone in the jaw.
Comment icon #31 Posted by Farmerboy 13 years ago
Well looky here, a mammal with transitional ear bones My link
Comment icon #32 Posted by danielost 13 years ago
Well looky here, a mammal with transitional ear bones My link that ossified cartilage still connected to the groove was common on the lower jaws of early mammals. But these fossils did not include the bones of the middle ear. it seems some mammals didnt have this bone at all.


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