Eating Flashcards
(19 cards)
Usually, how do paleontologists try to figure out a dinosaur’s diet?
They must compare its feeding adaptations with those of modern animals whose diets can be directly observed.
What adaptations are characteristic of herbivores?
Thin, ridged, ‘leaf-shaped’ teeth for shearing and broad, flat teeth for grinding.
Short, triangular beaks (for those who lack teeth).
Some (who browse high in trees but cannot climb) have long legs and necks.
What adaptations are characteristic of carnivores?
Sharp, pointed teeth for piercing. Sharp hooked claws for holding onto struggling prey.
Raptorial birds have sharp hooked beaks and claws.
Serrated teeth which helped slice through flesh.
Serrations
Small sharp bumps arranged in a line that usually runs from the tip of the tooth to its base.
Frugivores
Primarily eat fruit.
Beaks that are sharp and hooked help rip the peels and husks of fruit (i.e. parrots).
Piscivores
Specialized carnivores that primarily eat fish.
Tend to have sharp, conical teeth that lack serrations. These are good at spearing and holding on to slippery fish.
Also tend to have long jaws capable of snapping shut QUICK. Birds tend to have spear-shaped beaks that are long, straight and sharp at the tip.
Insectivore
Specialized carnivore that primarily eats insects.
Tend to have sharp, piercing teeth for puncturing chitinous exoskeletons. Though many have weak jaws and reduced teeth and eat soft insects. Some have no teeth at all.
Commonly have large spade-shaped claws and powerful but short limbs.
Omnivores
Eat significant amounts of both meat and plants.
Tend to have unspecialized beaks and teeth, or a variety of different shapes.
Resorption
Chemical process by which a dinosaur breaks down its own teeth and bones so that the minerals and nutrients can be reused.
When are loose teeth shed? How can we tell the difference between a shed tooth and a non shed tooth fossil?
Loose teeth are usually shed when eating.
Shed teeth aren’t uncommon fossils, and can be easily identified as shed because they’re usually well worn and lack roots.
Cellulose
The tough compound that makes up the walls of plant cells.
Animals cannot digest it on their own & need help from bacteria in their guts.
Dental Batteries
Arrangements of densely packed teeth that collectively form a single, large chewing surface.
The different tooth tissues of a dental battery were ground down at different rates, making the chewing surface intricate, varied and abrasive.
Which two groups of dinosaurs evolved dental batteries?
Hadrosaurs and Ceratopsians
What are two of the hard tissues that make up dino teeth?
Enamel - Usually covers the outside of the tooth
Dentine - Usually common on the inside of a tooth.
What is the difference between a hadrosaur dental battery and a ceratopsian dental battery? What do they share in common?
Hadrosaurs - Chewing surfaces are angled downwards, but still mostly horizontal. Hadrosaurs chewed by moving their jaws side to side.
Ceratopsians - Chewing surfaces are almost vertical. Their teeth would have slid together like scissor blades.
Both are inset in the jaw (close to the tongue) to make room for larger cheeks.
What adaptation helped Ankylosaurs and Sauropods digest plant matter (since they had no dental batteries)?
They made up for it with guts. They had HUGE ribcages that housed immense digestive organs.
Gastroliths
Small masses of little stones inside a dino’s ribcage that are part of a gastric mill (a special stone filled digesting organ located near the stomach).
They helped toothless animals ‘chew’ their food, because the muscular contractions grind the rocks against each other and against the plants.
What adaptations do Dromaeosaurs have to aid in eating?
