Restoration of Borealopelta markmitchelli with an ankylosaurus.
More than 110 million years ago, a heavily armored dinosaur weighing 1.3 tons ate its last meal, and then unfortunately fell into the water and died. It was washed away in the waters of present-day northern Alberta, buried in mud.
In 2011, its fossils reappeared in a mine near Fort McMurray. Researchers at the Royal Tyrrell Paleontological Museum, Brandon University and the University of Saskatchewan hope to unlock the secrets of the ankylosaur.
"The contents of the dinosaur's stomach are difficult to preserve, and this dinosaur's stomach is the best preserved to date." Jim Basinger, a geologist at the University of Saskatchewan, said, "Fossils will take us back to ancient times and give us an idea of what the dinosaur ate at its last meal, where they lived, what they liked to eat..."
There has been a lot of speculation about dinosaur feeding habits. Caleb Brown, paleontologist at the Royal Tyrrell Paleontological Museum, and David Greenwood, an adjunct professor of biology at Brandon University, have published a research paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science that unravels the mystery of the feeding habits of large herbivorous dinosaurs.
"This study refreshes our understanding of the feeding habits of large herbivorous dinosaurs, and this discovery is extraordinary, allowing us to understand the interaction between animals and the environment, details that cannot be excavated from dinosaur fossils," Brown said. ”
Fossils of ankylosaurs.
Based on previous research, the researchers found traces of plant seeds and twigs in dinosaur intestines, but found no information about the species of related plants. While scientists have a lot of speculation based on the shape of their teeth and jaws, the availability of plants, and their digestibility, the types of plants that herbivorous dinosaurs ate remain largely a mystery.
"When examining slices with the contents of the stomach of an ankylosaurus under a microscope, it is shocking that such concentrated and well-preserved plant tissue is present." Greenwood said, "The staple food of its last meal was the leaves of ferns, which had 88 percent of the leaves and 7 percent of the twigs and stems, respectively. ”
Further research found that dinosaurs were particularly picky eaters, choosing to eat only specific ferns, the thin cystic ferns, while cysts and conifers common in the early Cretaceous period were not in their diets. For specific plant species, the team identified 48 suspected species, including moss, 26 lithophytes and ferns, 13 gymnosperms, and two angiosperms and gastrolithia that aid digestion. "The fact that the dinosaur also had a large amount of charcoal formed by burnt plants in its stomach indicates that it had eaten a large number of ferns that grew after the fire in the area where the fire occurred," Greenwood said. This is similar to large herbivores such as moose, deer and elephants. These gregarious dinosaurs shaped the vegetation landscape of this area through their pastoral action. ”
Brown adds: "Plant residue in the stomach cannot be preserved for long, so it should die shortly after eating. For the seasons, plants tend to be more sensitive than animals, so we speculate that the time of death after eating the last meal should be between late spring and midsummer. Taken together, these findings allow us to further infer the animal's feeding preferences, how it exploits the secondary succession of forest fires and its digestive and physiological functions. ”
In order to further understand the environment and behavior of ankylosaurs, scientists continue to study in depth.
Editor: Pan Khan Reviewer: alone Editor-in-charge: Lei Xinyu
Journal Source: Royal Society Open Science
Issue no. 2054-5703
Original link: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-scientists-armored-dinosaur-ate-meal.html
The content of the Chinese is for reference only, and all contents are subject to the original English version. Please indicate the source of the reprint.