Plant-eating dinosaurs had a “surprising variation” in how they ate their meals regardless of having an analogous eating regimen, analysis suggests.
By analysing cranium specimens of herbivores such because the Jurassic-era Heterodontosaurus and Leothosaurus, British scientists decided that their consuming types modified based mostly on their jaw muscle tissue and biting actions.
It represents one other signal of “how innovative and unpredictable evolution can be”, scientists stated, as all plant-eating dinosaurs had been already thought to have descended from a single carnivorous ancestor.
Senior research creator Professor Paul Barret, a Natural History Museum palaeontologist, stated: “If you want to understand how dinosaurs diversified into so many different types so effectively, it’s critical to learn how they evolved to feed on such a wide variety of vegetation in so many different ways.
“This range in feeding mechanisms set them as much as dominate life on land for thousands and thousands of years to come back.”
The Heterodontosaurus and Leothosaurus skulls had been studied alongside these of Scelidosaurus, Hypsilophodon, and Psittacosaurus – all of which belonged to a bunch of herbivorous creatures often called Ornithischia.
Researchers had been then in a position to reconstruct the jaw muscle tissue of the 5 dinosaur species and simulate their biting motion, which instructed they’d a special manner of consuming crops.
While Heterodontosaurus’s massive jaw muscle tissue relative to its cranium measurement noticed it produce a excessive chunk drive best for consuming robust vegetation, the Hypsilophodon had smaller muscle tissue and rearranged them to chunk extra effectively.
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Lead creator Dr David Button stated: “When we compared the functional performance of the skull and teeth of these plant-eating dinosaurs, we found significant differences in the relative sizes of the jaw muscles, bite forces and jaw strength between them.
“This confirmed that these dinosaurs, though wanting considerably related, had advanced in very alternative ways to deal with a eating regimen of crops.”
The findings had been printed within the journal Current Biology.
Source: information.sky.com”