Using the analysis of fossilized feces, a team of scientists has reconstructed the structure of ecosystems at the time when dinosaurs came to dominate the planet, at the beginning of the Jurassic period.
Coprolites are fossilized faeces that are a valuable source of data about the past and have been used to try to reconstruct the rise of the dinosaurs, from a landscape dominated by non-dinosaur reptiles to one in which they thrived.
Dinosaurs, according to the fossil record, appeared in the middle of the Triassic period (between 247 and 237 million years ago), but their dominance in terrestrial ecosystems was not seen until about 30 million years later , at the beginning of the Jurassic.
A study published by magazine Nature reconstructed the structure of ecosystems from the time dinosaurs began their success story, based on the analysis of fossil samples of feces, in which food, plants and remains of unexcavated prey were identified, the Efe group reported.
These analyzes of hundreds of samples provided information on that location the dinosaurs it played in the ecosystem about 200 million years ago.
The team led by the University of Uppsala (in Sweden) studied, using different methods, 500 fossil remains of digestive material (such as feces or vomit) from south-eastern Poland, running from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Jurassic.
Analyzes of these remains were compared to the current fossil record, along with climate and plant data, to estimate changes in vertebrate size and abundance during that time. .
Fossil feces of a carnivorous dinosaur of the genus Dragonwith a picture of this animal on the back
Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki
Dinosaur food preferences
“Our research is innovative because we chose to understand the biology of the first dinosaurs based on their food choices. There were many surprising discoveries along the way”, said Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki from Uppsala University and one of the study authors.
The coprolites contained the remains of fish, insects, animals and larger plants, some of them well preserved, including small beetles. In others, bones were chewed by predators, who, like today’s hyenas, broke the bones to obtain salt and marrow.
The content of the coprolites of the first herbivorous dinosaurs, the long-necked sauropods, surprised researchers, as it contained a lot of tree ferns, but also other types of plants and coal.
The paleontologists’ opinion is that the charcoal was swallowed to detoxify stomach contents, as ferns can be toxic to herbivores.
oh study resulting from a model of evolution of dinosaurs in five steps that is applied to the geographical area of the samples, but which, according to the researchers, can explain global patterns.
The data suggest that the omnivorous ancestors of the first dinosaurs were replaced by non-dinosaur tetrapods, which became the first carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs at the end of the Triassic.
As a result, environmental changes associated with increased volcanic activity may have led to a more diverse range of food plants and then the appearance of larger and more diverse herbaceous species.
This led to the evolution of larger carnivorous dinosaurs in the early Jurassic and completed the transition to dominance in the ecosystem. The results show that dietary diversity and adaptability were critical factors for survival through the environmental changes of the Late Triassic.
2024-11-28 20:14:00
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