“X-ray Analysis Reveals Last Meal of Dinosaur-Era Predator in Australian Waters”

Nationalgeographic.co.id – New analysis using x-rays has revealed the last meal of the dinosaur-era predator. We now know a lot more about the diet of this prehistoric creature that grew up to two and a half meters long and lived in Australian waters at the time of the dinosaurs.

A team of scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) and the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI). The researchers used micro CT scan to peek into the fossilized stomach remains of small marine reptiles.

The marine reptile was a plesiosaur nicknamed ‘Eric’ and they scanned it to determine what it was eating near its death.

This research was published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology recently. The paper was published under the title “Investigating gut contents of the leptocleidian plesiosaur Umoonasaurus demoscyllus using micro-CT imaging” which can be obtained online.

The researchers were able to find 17 previously undescribed fish vertebrae in Eric’s intestines. The findings confirmed that the plesiosaur’s diet consisted mainly of fish, corroborating findings from an earlier study conducted in 2006.

The findings could help scientists learn more about the evolutionary history of extinct organisms like Eric’s, as well as help predict what the future of our marine life might look like.

Holotipe Umoonasaurus demoscyllus is one of the most complete plesiosaur skeletons ever found in Australia. This framework retains a gastric mass in the thoracic girdle region which has not been documented in detail.

According to the researchers, the research shows the potential of using x-rays to reconstruct the diets of other extinct organisms that inhabited Earth hundreds of millions of years ago.

“Previous studies examined the outer surface of Eric’s opal skeleton for clues,” said PhD researcher Joshua White, from the Australian National University Research School of Physics and the Australian Museum Research Institute.

“But this approach can be difficult and limited because petrified stomach contents are rare and there is so much more hidden beneath the surface that is almost impossible for paleontologists to see without destroying the fossil.”

Reptiles were the dominant predators in marine ecosystems throughout the Mesozoic. Australia preserved a rich and diverse collection of Mesozoic marine reptiles, including ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, sea turtles and aquatic varanoids whose remains are best known from the Cretaceous strata.

They believe their research is the first in Australia to use x-rays to study the gut contents of prehistoric marine reptiles.