Palaeontology
Predatory dinosaurs became vegetarians
By
T.K. RandallJanuary 17, 2011 ·
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 |
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