Latest news with #Diamantinasaurus
ABC News
6 hours ago
- Science
- ABC News
First reported sauropod fossil stomach contents show the dinosaurs were 'bulk feeders' of plants
Fossilised dinosaur guts unearthed in outback Queensland could back a long-standing theory on the diet of sauropods, the biggest reptiles to roam the planet. For nearly 150 years, it's been thought that sauropods — a group of four-legged, long-necked and relatively small-headed creatures like the Brachiosaurus — were herbivores. This was based on several assumptions, including their flat teeth and overall large body that would make it hard for them to chase down moving prey. But direct evidence of what these animals ate has been lacking. Now, in today's issue of the journal Current Biology, researchers report their first ever discovery of fossilised intestinal contents — referred to as "cololite" — from a sauropod. The cololite was found inside a relatively complete skeleton of Diamantinasaurus matildae in 2017 at Belmont Station, near Winton, with much of it sealed over by a layer of mineralised skin. "What was really exciting about it [the gut fossil] is in places you could see the folds of the gut," Belmont Station owner and palaeontologist David Elliott said. An analysis of the fossil showed a young Diamantinasaurus specimen, nicknamed "Judy", whose gut contained small voids — impressions left behind by decomposed plants. Palaeontologist and study lead author Stephen Poropat, from Curtin University, said Judy seemed to have eaten plants from a range of heights. "There's relatives of modern-day monkey puzzle trees, we have seed ferns, which are a totally extinct group," he said. "And we also have leaves from angiosperms, which are flowering plants. Back in the Cretaceous period when Judy was alive, they would have looked somewhat similar to modern-day magnolias." The study has shown not only what a sauropod like Diamantinasaurus ate, but how they ate too. Uppsala University palaeontologist Martin Qvarnström, who was not involved in the study, said the size of the food fragments found in Judy's gut supported the idea that sauropods fermented their food rather than chewed it. "The tricky part here was proving the plant material wasn't just random debris, and here the authors make a strong case, especially with evidence of the plants being sealed inside mineralised skin," he said. "The preservation of both gut contents and skin is unusual." Diamantinasaurus were first described in 2009 and lived in the mid Cretaceous, about 101 to 94 million years ago. They were part of the sauropod group of dinosaurs, which lived from about 201 million years ago until the end of the age of dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. When Diamantinasaurus lived, Australia was closer to the South Pole, and what is now outback would have been a wet flood plain covered in conifers, gingkos, seed ferns and other plants — plenty of food for a growing dinosaur. The largest-known sauropod eggs are smaller than a soccer ball so when the baby reptiles hatched, they may have been no bigger than 50 centimetres from tip to tail. Dr Poropat said they would then have to grow very fast to avoid falling victim to predators. "I often think about sauropods in similar context of turtles, where turtle mothers will lay a large number of eggs … and then basically abandon them," he said. "And when the babies hatch, they're ready to go. "For sea turtles that's the sea, but for sauropods they might have just needed to get into a forest … where they were surrounded by food and also had places to shelter." Dr Poropat said Judy was a sub-adult and probably measured about 11 to 12 metres. A fully grown Diamantinasaurus would have reached about 16m long. He theorised Judy (who is referred to as "she" although her gender isn't known) was in a transition phase where she was eating some of the plants she consumed when she first hatched. "We actually speculate that Judy might have had a diet different to an adult Diamantinasaurus," he said. "She couldn't reach up into the tops of conifers, but also she's starting to eat the conifer foliage that is targeted maybe more so by adults. "So it's kind of cool to think that sauropods would have changed their diet as they grew up, just as many animals do." Miami Frost Museum of Science palaeontologist Cary Woodruff, who specialises in sauropods but was not involved in the study, said capturing this transitionary period and its implications for sauropod growth were the crowning jewel of the new study. "Previous studies have shown that in some species, the young had pointed snouts, likely for selective feeding, and when they grew up, they had broad 'muzzles' for grazing," he said. "And in some, the young had teeth designed for both soft and coarse vegetation. Dr Woodruff said Judy captured a "moment in time" where the Diamantinasaurus had this Swiss Army knife. Mr Elliott said Judy the dinosaur, who scientists named after his wife, was likely to be given her own exhibit at a new building at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum in Winton. He said galleries were currently being designed and Judy was a prime candidate for a skeleton reconstruction. "We want to tell the story of Australian evolution as how from the very first life forms how Australian life has changed over millions of years."
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Paleontologists dig through fossilized dino guts to see what's inside
Nothing quite fits the moniker 'gentle giant' more than sauropods. These gargantuan dinosaurs could reach up to 123 feet long and weigh up to seven tons. Sauropods have long been believed to be herbivores, munching on leaves during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Now, for the first time, a team of paleontologists have studied the abdomen of a sauropod with its gut contents still intact that lived roughly 94 to 101 million years ago. The finding confirms that they were in fact herbivores–and did not really chew their food. Instead, sauropods relied on gut microbes to break down its food. The findings are detailed in a study published June 9 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology. 'No genuine sauropod gut contents had ever been found anywhere before, despite sauropods being known from fossils found on every continent and despite the group being known to span at least 130 million years of time,' Stephen Poropat, a study co-author and paleontologist at Curtin University in Australia, said in a statement. 'This finding confirms several hypotheses about the sauropod diet that had been made based on studies of their anatomy and comparisons with modern-day animals.' Fossilized dinosaur bones can only tell us so much about these extinct animals. Paleontologists can use trackways and footprints to learn about their movement and preserved gut contents called cololites to put together what their diets may have looked like. Understanding the diet is critical for understanding their biology and the role they played in ancient ecosystems, but very few dinosaur fossils have been found with cololites. These are gut contents that have yet to become poop–or coprolites. In particular, sauropod cololites have remained elusive. With their gargantuan sizes, these dinosaurs may have been the most ecologically impactful terrestrial herbivores on the planet during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. With this lack of direct dietary evidence, the specifics of sauropod herbivory—including the plants that they ate—have mostly been theorized based largely on tooth wear, jaw shape and size, and neck length. But that changed in the summer of 2017. Staff and volunteers at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History were excavating a relatively complete subadult sauropod skeleton. This particular Diamantinasaurus matildae specimen lived during the mid-Cretaceous period and was uncovered in the Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia. The team noticed an unusual, fractured rock layer that appeared to contain the sauropod's cololite with well-preserved plant fossils. The team analyzed the plant specimens within the cololite and found that sauropods likely only engaged in minimal oral processing of their food. Instead of chewing, their gut microbiota would ferment the plants to digest it. The cololite had a wide variety of plants, including foliage from conifers (cone-bearing seed plants), seed-fern fruiting bodies (plant structures that hold seeds), and leaves from angiosperms (flowering plants). From this, it looks like Diamantinasaurus was an indiscriminate, bulk feeder. 'The plants within show evidence of having been severed, possibly bitten, but have not been chewed, supporting the hypothesis of bulk feeding in sauropods,' said Poropat. The team also found chemical biomarkers of both angiosperms and gymnosperms—a group of woody, seed-producing plants that include conifers. [ Related: The mystery of why some dinosaurs got so enormous. ] 'This implies that at least some sauropods were not selective feeders, instead eating whatever plants they could reach and safely process,' Poropat said. 'These findings largely corroborate past ideas regarding the enormous influence that sauropods must have had on ecosystems worldwide during the Mesozoic Era.' Although it was not unexpected that the gut contents provided support for sauropod herbivory and bulk feeding, Poropat was surprised to find angiosperms in the dinosaur's gut. 'Angiosperms became approximately as diverse as conifers in Australia around 100 to 95 million years ago, when this sauropod was alive,' he says. 'This suggests that sauropods had successfully adapted to eat flowering plants within 40 million years of the first evidence of the presence of these plants in the fossil record.' Based on these findings, the team suggests that Diamantinasaurus likely fed on both low- and high-growing plants, at least before adulthood. As hatchlings, sauropods would have only been able to access food that was close to the ground. As they grew (and grew and grew), their viable food options also expanded. Additionally, the prevalence of small shoots, bracts, and seed pods in the cololite implies that subadult Diamantinasaurus likely targeted new growth portions of conifers and seed ferns. These portions of the plant are easier to digest. According to the authors, the strategy of indiscriminate bulk feeding likely served sauropods well for 130 million years. However, as with most studies, there are some important caveats and limitations. 'The primary limitation of this study is that the sauropod gut contents we describe constitute a single data point,' Poropat explained. 'These gut contents only tell us about the last meal or several meals of a single subadult sauropod individual.' We also don't know how the seasons affected diet, or if the plants preserved in this specific sauropod represent a diet typical of a healthy sauropod or a more stressed one. The specimen is also a subabult, which could mean that younger sauropods had this more than adults did. Despite the limitations, it offers an exciting look inside the stomachs of some of the largest creatures to ever live.
