Plant-eating dinosaurs had varied eating styles, skull analysis suggests
1 year, 11 months ago

Plant-eating dinosaurs had varied eating styles, skull analysis suggests

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Plant-eating dinosaurs may have evolved to have different ways of eating their food despite having a similar diet, research suggests. An analysis of skull specimens by UK scientists indicates that the first known herbivorous dinosaurs had a “surprising variation in eating styles” as a result of having different jaw muscles and biting actions. “This diversity in feeding mechanisms set them up to dominate life on land for millions of years to come.” These dinosaurs, although looking somewhat similar, had evolved very different ways to tackle a diet of plants Dr David Button, University of Bristol While all dinosaurs are thought to have descended from a single carnivorous ancestor, most of them evolved to become plant eaters. Dr David Button, lead author of the study, who carried out the work at the museum but is now a researcher at the University of Bristol, said: “When we compared the functional performance of the skull and teeth of these plant-eating dinosaurs, we found significant differences in the relative sizes of the jaw muscles, bite forces and jaw strength between them.

History of this topic

Revealing the bite: We finally know how jaws evolved in snakes and lizards
1 week, 6 days ago
Dramatic fossil shows mammal attacking dinosaur
1 year, 5 months ago
Alvarezsaur dinosaurs rapidly SHRANK to the size of chickens 95 million years ago
3 years, 5 months ago

Discover Related